The S&T Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers announced the recipients of its senior design awards at the 28th annual induction ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 26.

Hunter Boswell, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering, received the Senior Design Leadership Award. Boswell is a third-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 has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course for five semesters and has served as the primary mentor of 82 mechanical engineering senior design students.

Mina Khalizadeh Fathi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, received the Senior Design Mentorship Award. Khalilzadeh Fathi is in her second year of the doctoral program. Her research focuses on applying compliant constant-force mechanisms. She received the first-place award in the 2019 AIAA Individual Aircraft Student Design Competition for her design of a comprehensive unmanned aerial system for power transmission line inspection. Over the past four semesters, Fathi has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the mechanical engineering senior design course and has served as a mentor to 78 senior design students.

Hollis Waites, a master’s student in mechanical engineering, also received the Senior Design Mentorship Award. Waites is currently a second-year master’s student in mechanical engineering. She is researching design limitations for extrusion-based ceramic additive manufacturing with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus. Hollis was a student in the mechanical engineering senior design course in the spring of 2022. Now she serves as a graduate teaching assistant for the course, mentoring 40 students over the course of three semesters. Hollis and Bowell have led the senior design staff.