News

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Prof. Michael Watkins, Director of the Center of Space Research, authored this op-ed piece on the support of space exploration.

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Maruthi Akella is working to create fast, agile, and autonomous UAVs by borrowing navigation skills from nature’s great flyers—birds.

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Andrzej Stewart, BS ASE ’05, is one of six scientists selected for the yearlong Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation mission (HI-SEAS) IV, a NASA-funded Mars simulation project located in a solar-powered dome atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

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Nanshu Lu's research group has invented a method for producing inexpensive and high-performing wearable patches that can continuously monitor the body’s vital signs.

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Professor Clint Dawson authors an op-ed piece on the importance of hurricane storm surge prediction for Texas Perspectives.

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This fall, Alan Keisner, BS ASE ’78, MS ASE ’79, returned to the UT Austin campus to share his experience in the space industry with our students.

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Thomas Hughes was one of five Cockrell School faculty members named in Thomson Reuters’ list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2015 for exceptional impact in their fields.

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Alumna Angela Reeves, BS ASE ’08, was recognized by NASA Johnson Space Center for configuring and running the Cupola mock-up in the Space Station Training Facility (SSTF). 

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michael watkins

Michael Watkins joins ASE/EM as a professor and as the new director of the school’s Center for Space Research.

Before coming to the Cockrell School, Watkins served as manager of the Science Division at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, as well as the project scientist for the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On Missions. He was previously the mission manager for the Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, and was also the manager of the Navigation and Mission Design Section at JPL.

His engineering research interests include estimation theory, precise orbit determination and space navigation. His scientific research focuses on the acquisition and use of global maps of mass variability, derived from measurement of the gravity field, to better understand the earth's complex hydrosphere and cryosphere and their evolution.

Watkins was an originator of the GRACE mission concept when he was a graduate student at the Cockrell School. He is a pioneer in the development and use of gravity data in science applications, which has been extended to include the GRAIL lunar gravity mission and now the GRACE Follow-On mission set to launch in 2017. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from UT Austin.

What attracted you to UT Austin?

I came back to UT Austin because it is a clear world leader in the type of research I conduct and has close connections to NASA and space missions, which is important for me. There was a great opportunity to return to UT Austin and help develop a new generation of faculty, researchers and students that was too good to pass up.

What do you enjoy most about engineering or your specific field?

I like the “end-to-end” nature of it — that I can be part of designing a space mission, building it and then using the data for science.

What are your favorite hobbies?

My hobbies are playing tennis and reading, especially history.

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The Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics welcomes three new faculty members to the department for the 2015-16 year.

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Maytee Chantharayukhont, a senior in aerospace engineering honors and biochemistry, received the 2015 Graham F. Carey Computational Science Scholarship.

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Alumnus Mike Suffredini was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle about his experience managing the International Space Station for the past ten years.

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In the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the Cockrell School has maintained its standing as one of the top five best engineering programs in the world.

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Professor Maruthi Akella has been selected to receive the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society’s (AESS) Judith A. Resnik Space Award.

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Alumnus Andrzej Stewart is one of six scientists selected to spend a year in isolation for a Mars simulation project on a Hawaiian island.