A&A Graduation
See the latest info on our A&A Graduation page.
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Ceremonies.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Navid Daneshvaran's PhD Defense
Navid Daneshvaran's PhD Dissertation Defense, Numerical Investigation of Ram Accelerator Operation with Axisymmetric Projectiles, Committee
Carl Knowlen (Chair), Robert Breidenthal, Antonio Ferrante, Marco Salviato, John Kramlich, Pascal Bauer
Abstract
The ram accelerator is a hypervelocity chemical propulsion device capable of accelerating massive projectiles throughout the velocity range of 0.5 km/s to 6.0 km/s. Its propulsion cycle is similar to that of an in-tube ramjet operating with subsonic, supersonic, and/or mixed mode combustion processes that are dependent on in-tube Mach number and projectile geometry. The projectile carries no onboard propellant and has no moving parts. Ram accelerator was originally successfully developed with finned-projectiles in smooth-bored tube. More recently, however, new configurations are being developed to operate with axisymmetric projectiles in baffled and railed tubes to implement more practical setup for various applications. First, a review of theoretical and…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/3812442757. Campus room: 305. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Louk Goldberg's MS Thesis Defense
Louk Goldberg's MS Thesis Defense, Magnetic Field Design, Optimization, Physical Assembly and Characterization for High-Power ECR Thruster, Committee
Professor Justin Little (Chair), Professor Bhuvana Srinivasan
Abstract
This thesis presents the design, manufacturing, and magnetic characterization of a hybrid solenoid–permanent magnet field source for a high-power electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) thruster. The magnetic assembly was developed to support a Space Force high-power ECR thruster concept requiring an approximately 875 gauss resonance region near the base of a boron nitride discharge chamber while maintaining a field topology that guides plasma through the chamber. The final design combines a large-radius solenoid with a fourteen-element permanent magnet array. The permanent magnets provide a static bias field that reduces the solenoid current requirement, while the solenoid provides an approximately axisymmetric contribution that tunes the ECR surface location and improves axial field-line…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Campus room: 226. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.
Kuang-Ying "Eddie" Ting's Ph.D. Defense
Kuang-Ying"Eddie" Ting's PhD Dissertation Defense, Contribution to Commercial Supersonic Technology: Low-speed Wind Tunnel Aerodynamic Testing and Analysis, and Aeroservoelasticity Demonstration and Evaluation, Committee
Eli Livne and Mehran Mesbahi (Chair), Chet Nelson, Behcet Acikmese, Steven Brunton
Abstract
This dissertation makes contributions to commercial supersonic technology in two areas: low-speed wind tunnel aerodynamic testing and analysis, and wind tunnel aeroservoelastic demonstration and evaluation. The Supersonic Configurations at Low Speeds (SCALOS) project addresses the research gap between the low-speed evaluation needed for the takeoff, approach, and landing of commercial supersonic aircraft and the cruise-optimized conditions on which existing designs and publications have studied. The limitations of aerodynamic prediction at different levels of fidelity were first studied by comparing simulation methods against wind tunnel measurements. A design space survey of existing supersonic…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/98526372008. Campus room: 218. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM.
Samet Uzun's Ph.D. Defense
Samet Uzun's Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Modeling and High-Performance Algorithms for Mission-Constrained Trajectory Optimization, Committee
Behcet Acikmese (Chair), Mehran Mesbahi, Maryam Fazel, Aleksandr Aravkin, Eli Livne
Abstract
This dissertation develops modeling frameworks and high-performance algorithms for autonomous guidance. It studies how rich mission requirements can be represented in a mathematically precise and optimization-compatible way, and how the resulting nonconvex trajectory-generation problems can be solved reliably and efficiently. In particular, it develops smooth and exact models for mission-level specifications, with an emphasis on continuous-time signal temporal logic, and introduces prox-convex, a structure-preserving sequential convex programming algorithm for the resulting composite optimization problems. These modeling and algorithmic ingredients are integrated in a range of trajectory-optimization applications, including continuous-time signal temporal logic examples,…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/92893094936. Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 12, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
UW Commencement
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, June 13, 2026.
Juneteenth Holiday
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 19, 2026.
Independence Day Holiday
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, July 4, 2026.