Two Purdue University undergraduate research teams won awards at the 2014 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region III Student Conference this spring.

In the team division, a four-person team placed first with their paper on "Estimating Landing and Take-off Cycle Parameters Using MATLAB." Team members were Pedram Motevalli, aviation technology; Demetrios Katsaduros, electrical engineering; Matthew Prall, mechanical engineering; and Jacob Varney, mathematics.

Purdue University will host the Federal Aviation Administration’s newest Center of Excellence focused on General Aviation. Purdue is one of three core universities leading the center. The other two institutions are The Ohio State University and Georgia Institute of Technology.