SCI-TECH
AIAA SciTech Forum is the world's largest event for aerospace research, development, and technology. The hybrid format will allow you to participate in person in National Harbor, Maryland, or virtually, based on your preference.
ENGAGE
Engage is an online community and discussion forum where the aerospace community comes together to move the industry forward. Those Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members.
FORUM
AIAA AVIATION Forum is the only aviation event that covers the entire integrated spectrum of aviation business, research, development, and technology. This year will be held in Chicago from the 27th of June to the 1st of July, in person.
Illinois Tech Competed in AIAA-DBF 2023
April 20, 2023
Tucson, Arizona
Illinois Tech AIAA DBF team were in Tuscan, Arizona April 13-17 for the 2023 AIAA Design Build Fly competition. The overall goal of this year’s DBF was to design and manufacture an Electronic Warfare RC plane that has two sets of wings, fits inside a box with total dimensions (L+H+W) of less than 62 inches, must be assembled under 5 minutes, and be able to take off within 65 feet in all the missions. Mission-1 required flying 3 laps (each lap with a 360-degree opposite turn) under 5-minutes. Mission-2 was to fly as many laps carrying a minimum of 30% MGTW payload in 10 minutes, while Mission-3 was flying with the jamming antenna mounted on either side of the wing tip. The wings used for each profile were chosen by flipping a coin for a matching set (L1, L2, R1, R2).
The team passed a thorough technical inspection on Saturday, along with range and safety configuration checks. They attempted Mission-1 and got a full score. For Mission-2 however, the plane couldn’t take off in under 65 feet because the increased weight with payload resulted in underpowered propulsion. The team then attempted Ground Mission twice and passed each time with 10.2lbs and 29.4lbs loads respectively. They were not allowed to attempt Mission-3 without having completed MissIon-2. That said, the plane sustained no damage at all, it flies very well, is easy to maneuver, and can be assembled in 3:25 minutes.
About 135 schools (including international) submitted proposals; only 110 were selected, and 99 schools attempted the fly-off in Tucson. The final score was posted by AIAA, with Illinois Tech coming in at 47, and at the top for the state of Illinois this year. Overall great work hawks, and we know there will always be room for improvement. Thank you to everyone involved in this project, including the DBF leads, Execs, Treasurer and all the Sub-teams. We hope to come back with better results for next year’s competition. We will be holding one last GBM or a meeting for a sign off next week. Anyone who wants to check out the plane is most welcome. We might even fly it out one last time, but refer to our website https://aiaa.iit.edu for more info, pictures and videos. You can also check out our Youtube channel to watch the flight-tests and fly-off contests.
The 2023 Design/Build/Fly Competition will celebrated its 27th year. It started in 1996 by the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Design Engineering and Flight Test Technical Committees as an opportunity for university students to apply real-world aircraft design experience by giving them the opportunity to validate their analytic studies. This year's sponsors were Raytheon., Beechcraft and MATLAB Mathworks.
AIAA Illinois Tech Exec Board
www.aiaa.iit.edu
DBF GBM session on Friday!
September 1, 2022
The AIAA-IIT will hold the first GBM of this year on Friday, Sept 09 from 12:45PM-1:45PM in the Rettaliata Engineering auditorium 104. At GBM meeting we'll talk about our org, who we are and what we do, the benefits of joining our club and such. The main highlight of the session will be about our DBF Project and introducing our subteams to new students. Like previous years, the DBF team will build the best and foremost RC Plane for the AIAA annually held competition in Tuscan, Arizona. Lunch will be provided and we hope to see you all in person.
For more info contact us at aiaa@iit.edu or visit our Lab located in RE050.
Follow us across our social media for more.
AIAA Illinois Tech Exec Board
www.aiaa.iit.edu
AIAA Is Recruiting For Executive Board!
February 2, 2022
AIAA is currently recruiting motivated individuals with an interest in leadership positions for the Executive Board! All openings are open for elections for the Fall 2022 semester. Elections will be held virtually May 9th at 12pm.
List of Roles and Responsibilities:
Chair (President) - Hosts Eboard Meetings, GBM planning, communicates with faculty advisor (Prof. Vural) and regional AIAA representative (Lindsay Mitchell), leads AIAA.
Vice-Chair (Vice-President) - Backs Up Chair, prepares the newsletter template for PR Coordinator
Treasurer - Prepare and submit regular budgets to the Finance Board, Orders supplies and parts for AIAA and DBF, responsible for travel planning (Conferences, Competitions) that is school funded.
Secretary - Takes notes during E-board meetings, checks the email, makes announcements of upcoming events to Slack.
Merchandise Designer - Creates fun/functional merchandise related to the org. Keeps track of who ordered what and coordinates with the Treasurer to make sure the swag is ordered. Responsible for communicating with students who made orders to make sure payment is received and they get their swag. Artists welcome!
Recruitment Chair - Work with OCL to communicate with local high schools and elementary schools as well as local organizations and companies that would be interested in collaborating and hosting outreach events. Events such as paper airplane competitions.
DBF Liaison - In charge of communicating DBF project progress to AIAA Executive Board.
PR Coordinator - Designs flyers to advertise events, sends out the newsletter every week, maintaining social media
Event Coordinator - Reserving Rooms for Events, Non-GBM event planning.
If interested, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/p27M8hNb6eKKs9HG6
AIAA Elections - Fall 2022 E-Board
Monday, May 9 · 12:00 – 1:00pm
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/oms-ogou-jhr
Or dial: (US) +1 669-241-2662 PIN: 634 988 487#
AIAA SciTech 2022 IIT
January 1 - 7, 2022
San Diego, California
IIT Students attended SciTech 2022 in San Diego. Here, students had an opportunity to firsthand network with the current professionals of the aerospace industry as well as attend technical sessions of the latest research.
Additiionaly, lecturers from the IIT Faculty, Professors Nagib, Williams, and Dawson attended as well. A dinner was held, in which IIT alumni, faculty, and current students came together.
DBF is Officially an IPRO!
August 2, 2021
AIAA is proud to announce that Design Build Fly is now a college-credit course you can take. It can count as a technical elective or an IPRO. Since 1995 Illinois Tech’s IPRO Program has provided the alternative to a traditional undergraduate education. Our signature IPRO Program remains one of just a few programs of its kind in the country. IPRO joins students from various majors to work together to solve real-world problems, often on behalf of sponsor companies and nonprofits. A required academic program, IPRO teaches leadership, creativity, teamwork, design thinking, and project management—uniquely preparing students to succeed in a professional work environment.
IPRO student teams have explored a range of ambitious topics. These include developing a platform for safe drug disposal, designing a net-zero community, harvesting condensate from HVAC systems to create drinking water for humans, and hundreds more. In one course (see video), students developed multiple creative solutions to address a physical condition.
IIT DBF Team At Work For This Year's Competition
February 21, 2020
IIT Students and Team Leads are hard at work getting planes built to test fly for this year’s Design, Build, Fly Competition. This past week, Christian Comillas, the newest Structures Lead has been devoting his time and efforts developing the frames for the possible airplanes to compete in Kansas in April.
“I have a lot to prove,” Comillas stated while spending time with a particular hatch securing system, “And I want to make sure that we can fly this year.”
There has been some delays to production due to parts being waited on. But now that the majority of supplies are in AIAA-IIT hands, there has been continuous work done in the lab and the Idea Shop as available members work hard to recover for lost time.
Project Manager, Mikel Woo, is optimistic as he supervised and advised the Aerodynamics, Propulsion, and Structures leads to maximize efficient building.
NASA Engineer and IIT Alum, Alvah Bickner, Mentors Students and Hosts Trivia
January 29, 2020
Alvah W Bickner III is an Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni and a NASA Flight Dynamicist Engineer on the Flight Operations Team for LandSat8/LandSat9. He graduated in 2008 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. He now works at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, providing supporting orbital determination and attitude analysis, along with planning satellite calibrations, maneuvers, and orbit predictions.
During his talk during the lunch hour, he described his experiences trying to break into the industry, having originally worked for other companies that eventually led to his work with a firm that held a contract with NASA, which provided the means for him to begin his work in LandSat.
Former Treasurer of Phi Kappa Sigma, Order of Omega Honor Society, President of the Greek Council of IIT are some of the accomplishments Mr. Bickner conducted while a student at IIT.
After his talk, a game of space trivia was held, with prizes from Bickner’s workplace were awarded to the top seven winners.
IIT Students Attend AIAA SciTech 2020
6–10 January 2020
Orlando, Florida
IIT Students and AIAA Members had an opportunity to attend the week long aerospace conference in Orlando, Florida over Winter Break. The convention consisted of networking with fellow students, young professionals, and senior members in the industry. In addition, technical sessions were available to enrich the days in between Plenaries and Forums to showcase the latest research across aerospace related disciplines.
There was engaging and insightful lectures on sustainability for the future, puppies to play with during a lunch break, and a plethora of people to mingle with.
The largest firms in the industry: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory, as well as many smaller companies showcased their prospective internship opportunities and entry level positions to prospective job seekers throughout the week.
There was even time to take a small road trip east towards Kennedy Space Center to watch the rocket launch of the Falcon 9.
“I can’t believe we got to see an actual rocket launch!” AIAA Member and SciTech attendee Ted Rosenthal gushed shortly after arriving to Jetty Park to observe the launch approximately 5 miles away from the launch site. The view was over the bay late at night, the rocket’s bright ascension off the planet like a sunrise burning out the night.
