Two MSOE senior design teams presented papers at the 2025 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region III Student Conference at the University of Cincinnati, and one of the teams took home first place for their work.

The first-place team’s project was entitled “Design and Implementation of a High-Powered Rocket to Investigate Flight Performance and Fin Flutter During Transonic Flight.” For this project, the team designed and built a two-stage rocket intended to fly in the transonic flight regime—a transitional region between subsonic and supersonic speeds.

“Typically, flight vehicles are not designed to sustain transonic flight due to less-than-ideal aerodynamic conditions at these speeds. Our goal was to explore what would happen if we intentionally designed a vehicle to operate within this challenging regime,” explained Ibraheem Sheikh, team lead.

The competition required teams to present their projects to an audience and panel of judges, followed by a Q&A session with the judges.

 “It was an incredible honor to be awarded first place,” said Sheikh. “Winning felt surreal, but more than anything, it was a reflection of the teamwork, long hours, and learning that went into our project.”

The other team’s project, “Turbocharger to Turbojet Conversion,” focused on taking an automotive turbocharger and repurposing it into a functional jet engine. “By designing a combustion chamber similar to the ones found in commercial jets and routing the hot gasses into the turbocharger, we are replicating the processes inside a jet engine without having to reinvent the wheel,” said team lead Rowan Barnes.

Sheikh and Barnes valued the experience and enjoyed being surrounded by a group of people with similar interests and passions. “It was great seeing how different teams approached their projects—and even better knowing that these weren’t just impressive ideas, but work being done by our peers who are all about to step into the industry alongside us,” said Sheikh.

“Being in the room with some incredibly talented and knowledgeable people and listening to their stories was a fun time. I do have to say the best part of the conference was seeing everyone recognize MSOE as a leading engineering school,” said Barnes.

The high-powered rocket team was advised by Dr. Patrick Comiskey, Mechanical Engineering Department, and included Cole Christopherson, Tari Himelhoch, Ian James, Cesar Martinez, Thomas Rouse, Ibraheem Sheikh and Samuel Zieba.

The turbojet team was advised by Dr. Prabhakar Venkateswaran, Mechanical Engineering Department, and included Ryan Reid, Rowan Barnes, Nick Morris, Noah Gover and Spencer Davis.