Terrier engineers win NASA student design competition on clean aviation energy
By Patrick L. Kennedy
Days after their Boston University graduation, a team of newly minted engineers won a NASA competition with a proposal to make tomorrow’s aviation industry run on aluminum powder instead of jet fuel. Odin Francis, Patrick Olah, Michael Osuji, and Max Pounanov—all ENG’23—labored over their innovative design throughout their senior year, and in early June they took first place in the second annual Gateways to Blue Skies: Clean Aviation Energy student competition, held at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
“It’s overwhelming,” says Olah. “Eight months ago I had no idea how aluminum powder might be used to power an airplane, but I’m so glad we picked this topic for our senior design project and just dived in. It’s like the butterfly effect.” The four young alums have been offered internships in NASA aeronautics centers as a result of their victory.
Read the full story at BU Today.