Niner Engineers on aeronautics team fly through a milestone year

UNC Charlotte AIAA team members stand in field with airplane

Niner Engineers in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) hit new milestones for the first time in April 2025. The AIAA Student Branch at UNC Charlotte competed for the first time in the association’s international Design-Build-Fly competition on April 10.

Team members include Dalton Canup (BSET), Parker Jones (BSME), Michael Rodriguez (BSET), Grayson Taylor (BSME) and Kyle VanHorn (BSME), who serves as the team president, traveled to Tucson, AZ to compete against 112 teams representing 14 nations around the globe. The student aviation enthusiasts are advised by Artur Wolek, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Wolek congratulated the team, saying, “A huge thank you to our team for their hard work and to everyone who has supported us on this journey!”

VanHorn presents paper that earned regional student conference honors

The prior week on April 3, VanHorn had presented his research paper at the AIAA Southeastern Regional Student Conference which earned the Stan Powell Prize for Best Paper Award in the Undergraduate Division. The paper, “Experimental characterization of a quadrotor’s response to an air vortex cannon,” represented research that VanHorn had conducted throughout the past academic year under the direction of Wolek.