Aerospace engineering PhD student Nicole Nutter received the 2nd place 2024 AIAA Best Student Paper Award in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at this summer’s AIAA Aviation Forum in Las Vegas, NV. Nutter received this award for her work on thermochemical nonequilibrium modeling for shock/boundary layer interaction (SBLI) research. Her work is part of a joint research project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Nutter’s paper, titled “Thermochemical Nonequilibrium Modeling in a Continuous-Galerkin, Finite-Element Framework,” advances the computational capability of the scalable and high-order ORNL’s in-house CFD code for SLBI research in the low hypersonic regime. On winning this award, Nutter commented, “It’s a great honor, and I am grateful. It also makes all my hard work worth it!”
Nutter credits her success to excellent mentorship by MABE Assistant Professor Devina Sanjaya and a group of researchers at ORNL. Nutter joined Sanjaya’s Scientific Computing and Fluid Dynamics Lab in the fall of 2022.
“The AIAA Best Student Paper Award in CFD is a highly prestigious award recognizing three students with outstanding research and technical communication skills,” said Sanjaya “As Nicole’s PhD advisor, I am delighted that her hard work is acknowledged. I am excited to see her growth as a CFD researcher and help her improve.”