Liberi, 22, has been working with Dr. Narayanan Komerath for about two years on his research project, "Divergence Speed Prediction for Slung Load Shapes" which was represented on a poster at the event. Judges from different disciplines roamed the afternoon-long poster session, grilling the young researchers on their projects.

Joining Liberi at the symposium wereKiijakarn Praditukrit, Victor Heaulmeand Yuanxin Shen, three underclassmen with whom Liberi has worked on this research over the past year.

The research seeks to reduce the amount of time needed to certify safe flight speeds for sling loads by using airload maps and dynamic simulation methods.

Praditukrit, Heaulme, and Shen will continue the research under Komerath's tutelage when Liberi leaves in May to take a job at Ratheon in Tuscon, AZ.

"I'm excited to be working in this area for Ratheon," said Liberi.

"I think they were impressed not only with my research but with the experience I was able to get in managing the project with two other, less experienced researchers. This was a good experience."

Several other GT-AE teams presented posters, including:

Wind Tunnel Prototype Building
Eric Stoker-Spirt; Max Germain; Thomas Rainey;
Franklin Turbeville; Dyllan Russell

Extracting Static Pressure from Velocimetry in Vortical Flows
Jackson Merkl

Control of Centrifugal Instability in Vortex-Surface Interaction using Plasma Flow Actuators
Vaibhav Kumar

Extra Vehicular Activity Research
Austin Claybrook

One student team made an oral presentation:

Beyond Cost Tools: Spacecraft Net Present Value and the Hosted Payload Paradigm
Fan Geng and Robert Herd