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9th Annual Graduate Student Symposium, 2018

The 9th Annual MIPSE (Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering) Graduate Student Symposium took place on November 14, 2018 in the EECS Atrium at the University of Michigan. We had 52 poster presentations (a record number!) by our graduate and undergraduate students – including 43 presentations by UM students and 9 by MSU students. We thank all of the presenters for their top-flight posters and expert descriptions. The symposium was a great success, enabling our students to share the results of their state-of-the-art research and learn from their colleagues.

9th MIPSE Graduate Symposium

Our featured speaker was Dr. Svetlana Starikovskaia of Laboratory of Plasma Physics, CNRS, France; she presented a talk titled "Kinetics of Nanosecond Discharges at High Specific Energy Release". The special seminar was followed by student poster sessions.

One of the major attractions of the Symposium was the demonstration of a working Hall thruster built by the MAISE (Michigan Advanced In-Space propulsion Engineering) team. Thank you, MAISE team members and mentors!

9th MIPSE Graduate Symposium

MAISE team, left to right: Marcel Georgin (mentor), Katherine Wolff, Nora Shapiro, Sarah Cusson (mentor). Not pictured: Catherine Budd, Veronika Bayer, Kaelan Oldani, Abigail Huff, Kirsten Reid.

Best Presentation Award

The MIPSE judges (Dr. Soheila Mohades, Dr. Savio Poovathingal, Dr. Daniel Seipt, and Dr. Rachel Young) had a challenging task in selecting from the many outstanding presentations. The Best Presentation Award winners are:

  • Ethan Dale (Aerospace Engineering, U-M)
  • Amina Hussein (Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, U-M)
  • Yi Luo (Electrical and Computer Engineering, MSU)
  • Michael Wadas (Mechanical Engineering, U-M)

The winners received a MIPSE mug, award certificate, and a plasma book of their choice.

9th MIPSE Graduate Symposium

Award winners Yi Luo (left) and Michael Wadas (right). Not pictured: Ethan Dale and Amina Hussein.

Poster Presentations (in alphabetical order)

  • Ethan Dale, Non-Invasive Characterization of the Hall Thruster Breathing Mode (PPTX)
  • Laura Elgin, Blast-Wave-Driven Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Growth in Low-Density-Contrast Systems: Experimental Results and Future Directions (PDF)
  • Kenneth Engeling, A Spectroscopic Study of Discharge Species Produced in a Packed Bed Dielectric Barrier Discharge (PDF)
  • Forrest Glines, Performance Portable Finite Volume Magnetohydrodynamics for the Exascale Era (PDF)
  • Shadrach Hepner, Instability-Induced Cross Field Transport in a Magnetic Nozzle (PPTX)
  • Janez Krek, Dynamic evaluation of EEDF with Boltzmann equation solvers in the KGMf (PDF)
  • Janis Lai, Investigation into the Coupling Between Plasma-induced Capillary Oscillations and Streamer Self-organization Inside Bubbles in Water (PDF)
  • Andrew LaJoie, Overview of Experimental Determinations of Plasma Properties in Ar gas in a Plasma Window (PPTX)
  • Amanda Lietz, Modeling Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Multi-jet Dynamics (PPTX)
  • Astrid Raisanen, The Mobility of Electrons in a Hall Thruster Simulation (PDF)
  • Akash Shah, Extending Experimental and Diagnostics Capabilities on the 1-MA, 100ns MAIZE Pulsed Power Facility (PDF)
  • Brendan Sporer, Construction of the BLUE Linear Transformer Driver System at the University of Michigan (PPTX)
  • Robert VanDervort, Experiments Relevant to Understanding the Interaction of Stellar Radiation with Molecular Clouds (PDF)
  • Alexander Vazsonyi, Towards Multidimensional Hybrid-Kinetic Modeling of Thermionic Hollow Cathodes (PDF)
  • Benjamin Wachs, Background Pressure Effects on the Plume of an ECR Thruster (PDF)
  • Katherine Wolff, Development of a Mobile Electric Propulsion Demonstration for STEM Outreach (PPTX)