Hovakimyan named sole recipient of 2011 AIAA award

Professor and Schaller Faculty Scholar Naira Hovakimyan has been selected to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Mechanics and Control of Flight Award for 2011. This prestigious award honors an outstanding recent technical or scientific contribution by an individual in the mechanics, guidance, or control of flight in space or the atmosphere.

“My first reaction to the award was that ‘hard work and persistence wins,’” Hovakimyan said. “Obviously, we do not work for awards, but it is always very encouraging to see that your colleagues and community appreciate your contributions.”

A rarity in the Mechanical Science and Engineering department, Hovakimyan received her Ph.D. in physics and mathematics, not engineering, at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow. Her math expertise has enabled her to address a long-standing open problem in adaptive control theory, which provides new opportunities for addressing control problems in the presence of large uncertainties with guaranteed performance, breaking new ground toward avoiding certain catastrophic airplane crashes.

According to the AIAA, the citation for Hovakimyan’s award will read, “For ground breaking work in L1 robust adaptive control of nonlinear uncertain systems, vision-based guidance, navigation and control, and cooperative path planning of UAVs.” The award consists of an engraved medal, a certificate of citation, and a rosette pin.

Hovakimyan will receive the award on August 9 at the AIAA Guidance Navigation and Control Conference in Portland, Oregon.