Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics
November 4, 2024
NASA funds effort to study effects of the space environment on living organisms
NASA has awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant to establish a regional scientific consortium based at the University of Washington, in partnership with Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The consortium will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the space environment — both in low-Earth orbit and beyond — affects living things.
August 1, 2024
15 UW professors among new class of members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences
Fifteen faculty members at the University of Washington have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2024. They are among 36 scientists and educators from across the state announced Aug. 1 as new members. Selection recognizes the new members’ “outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”
February 17, 2023
Video: Lummi Nation School students visit UW to talk to International Space Station astronaut
Students from the Lummi Nation School visited the University of Washington in earlh February for a real-time Q&A with astronaut Josh Cassada aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Cassada helped do space research on a plant science experiment the students sent to the ISS.
August 15, 2022
UW to host college students for NASA-funded lunar rover challenge
The University of Washington received a nearly $500,000 grant to run one of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges in which participants turn a model lunar lava tube into a habitat suitable for housing humans on the moon or Mars.
February 22, 2022
Q&A: Student Kaden Lee on competing in the ‘Jeopardy! College National Championship’
The “Jeopardy! College National Championship” brought together undergraduate students from 36 U.S. colleges and universities. Kaden Lee, a UW junior from Medical Lake, Washington, majoring in aeronautics and astronautics, appeared in the tournament on Feb. 11.
July 22, 2021
Gaming graphics card allows faster, more precise control of fusion energy experiments
UW researchers have developed a method that uses a gaming graphics card to control plasma formation in their prototype fusion reactor.
July 16, 2021
20 UW researchers elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021
Twenty scientists and engineers at the University of Washington are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 announcement. New members were chosen for “their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”
April 20, 2021
Using engineering methods to track the imperceptible movements of stony corals
A new study led by UW researchers borrowed image-analysis methods from engineering to spot the minute movements of a stony coral.
October 29, 2020
UW Space Policy and Research Center brings researchers, policymakers together for online symposium Nov. 6
A preview of the Nov. 6 SPARC Symposium, which will feature a conversation with Andy Weir, author of “The Martian.”
October 1, 2020
Faculty/staff honors: Teaching and mentoring award; three Aeronautics & Astronautics professors recognized — and state dance educator of the year
Recent honors to UW faculty have come from the American Institute for Aeronautics & Astronautics, the American Society of Composites, the Coalition for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology and the Dance Educators Association of Washington.
February 18, 2020
Simple, fuel-efficient rocket engine could enable cheaper, lighter spacecraft
UW researchers have developed a mathematical model that describes how rotating detonation engines work.
January 6, 2020
Honors for three faculty in aeronautics and astronautics
Three faculty members in the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics have received awards for their work.
November 15, 2019
UW aerospace engineer part of $1.7M grant to study corals
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from multiple institutions — including the University of Washington — has received a two-year $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant to study coral growth.
September 19, 2019
Plasma flow near sun’s surface explains sunspots, other solar phenomena
A new model for plasma flow within the sun provides novel explanations for sunspots, the 11-year sunspot cycle, solar magnetic reversals and other previously unexplained solar phenomena.
May 29, 2019
Video: Origami-inspired materials are designed to soften impact
University of Washington researchers have developed a novel solution to change the feeling of impact when one thing hits another. It has potential for use in spacecraft, cars and beyond — inspired by origami.
May 24, 2019
Origami-inspired materials could soften the blow for reusable spacecraft
University of Washington researchers used the paper folding art of origami to develop a novel solution to help reduce the forces associated with impact — like in car crashes, football helmets, landing spacecraft and more.
August 15, 2018
Flying blind: How a drone can soar without using GPS
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new method that gives aircraft a backup system in case GPS fails: An antenna on the ground that can tell a drone where it is. The team successfully tested their system in June.
April 12, 2016
UW undergraduate team wins $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that translate sign language
Two University of Washington undergraduates have won a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for their “SignAloud” invention — gloves that can translate American Sign Language into text or speech.
July 20, 2015
The Next MacGyver will be a woman — and a UW engineering student may invent her
Astronautics doctoral student Nao Murakami wants to invent the heir to Angus MacGyver — the 1980s television hero who inspired a generation of engineers by foiling criminals with household items like cooking oil, a shop vac or a tube sock. Only this time the engineering heroine will be a woman.
June 2, 2015
UW researchers scaling up fusion hopes with DOE grant
UW researchers are scaling up a novel plasma confinement device with a DOE grant, in hopes of producing a self-sustaining reaction to create fusion energy.
October 8, 2014
UW fusion reactor concept could be cheaper than coal
University of Washington engineers have designed a concept for a fusion reactor that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output.
February 20, 2014
NASA’s ‘Mohawk Guy’ advocates ‘audacious,’ creative engineering
Bobak Ferdowsi, a NASA flight engineer who became known as “Mohawk Guy” after sporting a mohawk hairstyle during the 2012 rover Curiosity’s landing on Mars, spoke to a class of University of Washington aeronautics and astronautics engineering students on Feb. 19. Ferdowsi was a student in the department and graduated from the UW in 2001.
April 4, 2013
Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars
Astronauts could be a step closer to a fast journey to Mars using a unique manipulation of nuclear fusion devised by UW scientists and those at a Redmond company.
June 28, 2012
Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips
In one of the twists of scientific discovery, a UW duo working on fusion energy — harnessing the energy-generating mechanism of the sun — may have found a way to etch the next generation of microchips.
