The John A. & Jane Dunning Copper Fellowship is awarded to three Ph.D. Candidates
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Anubhav Dwivedi |
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Sally Ann Keyes, Anubhav Dwivedi, and Ashwin Dev Achambath have been awarded the 2015 - 2016 John A. & Jane Dunning Copper Fellowship in Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics in recognition of passing the Doctoral Written Preliminary Examination (WPE) with the three highest scores. The Fellowship was established to support students who have an outstanding academic record and who demonstrate a strong aptitude in their field of study.
John and Jane Copper established the Fellowship in order to recognize the University of Minnesota’s contribution to preparing John for a successful career. After graduating with an Aeronautical Engineering undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota in 1957, John worked at McDonnell Douglas for 35 years.
Sally Ann Keyes
The first of the Fellowship recipients, Sally Ann Keyes, came to the University of Minnesota after completing her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University. She has enjoyed her first year with the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics department, learning much from her courses, her research, and other people in the program. She says, “I’m excited to be a part of the aerospace community at the University of Minnesota, and I know that it will impact my life in many positive ways for years to come.”
Sally Ann is looking forward to continuing her graduate studies now that she has finished the Written Preliminary Exams. Her research focuses on the modeling and control of flexible aircraft, which aims to enable more efficient aircraft in the future. She comments, “I am fortunate to be able to work on a project that I am passionate about, both in terms of the mission and the technical work. I am deeply grateful to have received the Copper Fellowship, which helps me to pursue the studies and research that I am passionate about.”
Anubhav Dwivedi
Anubhav Dwivedi obtained both his undergraduate and his master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. Currently, he is working with Professor Graham Candler and Professor Joseph Nichols in the AEM department as well as with Professor Mihailo Jovanovic in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. His research focuses on understanding the dynamics of interaction between shock wave and boundary layers. This phenomenon occurs in numerous high speed flow configurations like in supersonic intakes, deflected control surfaces of vehicles at transonic, and supersonic speeds. It is often associated with a degradation in performance. Anubhav and his advisors are trying to lead an interdisciplinary effort in this area with an objective of understanding, modeling, and ultimately controlling the resulting dynamics.
Anubhav says, “It is great to be recognized for my performance in the qualifying exams. I wish to perform equally well in my research project. I feel that the AEM graduate program at University of Minnesota has given me an excellent platform to carry out my research. In particular, I am thankful to my advisors for the amount of freedom and support that they have given me.”
Ashwin Dev Achambath
Ashwin Dev Achambath has lived all his life in India until he moved here last fall for graduate school. He graduated from IIT Madras with his Bachelors-Masters dual degree in 2015. Since high school, he has been interested in math, physics, and programming but found that his passions were not strong enough in any of these areas. Instead, he decided on engineering, “the perfect field for me,” he says, because he could dabble in all three subjects. He remarks, “Of course Aerospace Engineering is the coolest ever so I ended up getting my integrated degrees in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Physics.” Currently, Ashwin is focused on Computational Fluid dynamics with Professor Thomas Schwartzentruber. He says, Professor Schwartzentruber “has been really supportive and I find his Molecular Gas Dynamics Simulations group fascinating. Although I haven't started working on anything much at the moment, I have been familiarizing myself with the research of the group and have been discussing potential projects I could be working on. I am really looking forward to working with the group soon.”
While he is unsure what the future holds, Ashwin tends to enjoy the academic environment and could be inclined to pursue a career in academics. In response to receiving the Fellowship, he comments, “It was a delightful surprise for me. I wasn't really aware of the fellowship until I got it. However, it's a wonderful token of appreciation and more importantly it provides a great deal of encouragement.”