The S&T Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers announced the recipients of its senior design awards at the 29th annual induction ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.
Senior Design Leadership Award
Hunter Boswell, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering, received the Senior Design Leadership Award. Boswell is a fourth-year doctoral student studying near-shore wave breaking dynamics as part of the Wind Hazard Mitigation Laboratory. His research has been supported in part by the Missouri Space Grant Consortium through a fellowship and he has participated in a research internship at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory. He is also a recipient of the GAANN fellowship. He has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course for six semesters and has served as the primary mentor of 101 mechanical engineering senior design students.
Hollis Waites, a master’s student in mechanical engineering, also received the Senior Design Leadership Award. Waites has been a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course for four semesters, directly mentoring 46 students. For three of these semesters, she co-led the course staff and made many improvements. Hollis is graduating with her master’s degree this semester, with research on design for ceramic additive manufacturing funded by Kansas City National Security Campus. Hollis plans to use her experiences with senior design in a future career in design research and academia. This spring, she will start a PhD at Brigham Young University researching origami design and fabrication.
Senior Design Mentorship Award
Josh Muller, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, received the Senior Design Mentorship Award. Muller is a second-year doctoral student studying metal additive manufacturing and material characterization. His research has been supported by the GAANN fellowship and the Missouri Space Grant Consortium through a fellowship. He served as a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course for two semesters and has served as the primary mentor of 40 mechanical engineering senior design students.
Tunay Turk, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering, also received the Senior Design Mentorship Award. Turk is expected to complete his program in Fall 2024. Turk’s research centers on the development and optimization of a novel metal additive manufacturing process called laser-foil-printing. His work includes process optimization, sensor embedding, thermal simulations, and infrared monitoring. Throughout his academic career, Turk has earned multiple accolades, including the Senior Design Mentorship Award in 2022 and first-place honors for Best Paper/Presentation at the Intelligent Systems Center Annual Research Symposium in both 2021 and 2024. Turk has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course for six semesters, mentoring a total of 76 senior design students. Currently, he serves as the lead teaching assistant, overseeing course operations and providing guidance to students and faculty.