Professor Hovakimyan appointed as Schaller Faculty Scholar

MechSE Professor Naira Hovakimyan has been re-appointed as a Schaller Faculty Scholar for an additional four-year term. This appointment—named in honor of mechanical engineering alumnus Alwin Schaller—carries with it a stipend for use in research and education.

Professor Hovakimyan, who joined the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2008, has been collaborating for several years with NASA Langley Research Center on adaptive control problems. Last summer her L1 Adaptive Flight Control System successfully guided a NASA AirSTAR test vehicle through a series of potentially dangerous flight situations. She and former student Chengyu Cao have written a book, published by SIAM, on the topic of L1 adaptive control theory.

In 2011 Professor Hovakimyan was named a University Scholar by the University of Illinois in recognition of her teaching and research accomplishments. She also received the 2011 AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award and has been invited as a keynote or plenary speaker for several international conferences.