Student Paper Competitions

Please direct questions to:
Max Li, University of Michigan
Min Xue, NASA Ames Research Center

Award Name

Neil Y. Chen Memorial Best Student Paper Award

The best student award in air transportation systems recognizes the best student paper each year in the air transportation system technical discipline at the AIAA Aviation. The authors who want their papers to be considered for this award should select the best student paper option during submission. The full papers will be evaluated by the AIAA requirements and our technical committee selection criteria. The authors (finalists) of the 3-5 candidate papers will be invited to give their presentations in the same session. The award will be announced at AIAA Aviation.

Section Criteria

Significance of contribution (20%), Structure of paper (10%), Writing quality (10%), Appropriateness of the approach (20%), Clarity of drawings, graphs, and tables (10%), Appropriateness of abstract (10%), Quality of discussion and conclusions (10%), Adequacy of references and discussion of prior work (10%).

Please direct questions to:
Reza Djeddi, Cadence Design Systems
Camli Badrya, University of California, Davis

Award Name

Applied Aerodynamics Student Paper Competition

The Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee is sponsoring the APA Student Paper Competition. Eligible written papers will be judged by members of the APATC Education Subcommittee for the “Best Paper” award. The winner of the “Best Paper” award will be notified before the conference and will receive a certificate (presented during the AVIATION Plenary session) and a $1000 award (provided by our corporate sponsor: RTX Corporation).

Additionally, there will be a “Best Presentation” award with a cash prize of $500 awarded to the student with the best presentation. This will be based on the final work presented at the APATC Student Paper Competition technical session during the AVIATION conference.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules:

Authorship: To be eligible, the student needs to be full-time at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Students are encouraged to submit extended abstracts that are as close as possible to the anticipated final paper. Student papers should report on work primarily conducted by students in collaboration with their faculty advisors; therefore, all primary/presenting authors of papers submitted for consideration in the Student Paper Competition must be students at the time of abstract submission. The first author of the paper must remain the same between the abstract, final paper, and presentation. Up to two non-student co-authors are allowed.

Presentation: At conference, the presentation must be given by the primary author of the paper otherwise the paper will be disqualified from the competition.

Extended Abstract: Student abstracts must be extended abstracts that follow the rules outlined in this Call for Papers. When submitting to the abstract submission website, select “Student Paper Competition” as the paper type.

Section Criteria

Final papers will be judged based upon the importance of the work, originality, quality, and completeness. Detailed criteria for selecting the “Best Paper” are outlined below:

• Originality of the work
• Relevance to the field of Applied Aerodynamics
• Technical quality and completeness of the work
• Clarity and style consistent with AIAA paper guidelines

For the “Best Paper” award, submissions will only be judged based on the written work and not the oral presentation. On the other hand, for the “Best Presentation” award, judges will select the paper solely based on the oral presentation at the conference.

Please note that the Best Paper and Best Presentation awards are judged independently. A single entry may be selected for both awards if it demonstrates excellence in both the written paper and the oral presentation.

Please direct questions to:
Charlie Zheng, Utah State University
Sam Lee, NASA

Award Name

Atmospheric and Space Environments Student Paper Competition

Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit papers for consideration in the Atmospheric and Space Environments Student Paper Competition. Entries to the Student Paper Competition will be presented in regular technical sessions with other papers in their topic area and archived as AIAA papers.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules:

To be eligible for this award, the student must be an AIAA member or student member, the primary author of the paper, and in attendance at the conference to present the paper. In addition, all work must have been performed while the author was a student.

Section Criteria

The written papers will be judged based on the following criteria: (1) originality (is the work original, or is it something that has been addressed in the past); (2) technical quality (appropriate level of technicality and free of errors); (3) organization, completeness, grammar and usage (style and clarity); (4) literature review/acknowledgement of prior work and explanation of the relevance to the work presented in the paper; (5) accuracy of experimental or numerical results (ref. AIAA standards for journals); (6) importance/contribution to field. The student author of the best paper will receive a certificate and a cash award after the conference.

Please direct questions to:
Krishna Sampigethaya, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Award Name

Best Student Paper Award in Aviation and Aerospace Cybersecurity

The best student award in aviation and aerospace cybersecurity recognizes the best student paper each year in the aviation cybersecurity technical discipline at the AIAA Aviation. The authors who want their papers to be considered for this award should select the best student paper option during submission. The full papers will be evaluated by the AIAA requirements and our technical committee selection criteria. The authors (finalists) of the 3-5 candidate papers will be invited to give their presentations in the same session. The award will be announced at the AIAA AVIATION.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules:

To be eligible for this award, the student must be an AIAA member or student member, the primary author of the paper, and in attendance at the conference to present the paper. In addition, all work must have been performed while the author was a student.

Selection Criteria:

The written papers will be judged based on the following criteria: (1) originality (is the work original, or is it something that has been addressed in the past); (2) technical quality (appropriate level of technicality and free of errors); (3) organization, completeness, grammar and usage (style and clarity); (4) literature review/acknowledgement of prior work and explanation of the relevance to the work presented in the paper; (5) accuracy of experimental or numerical results (ref. AIAA standards for journals); (6) importance/contribution to field. The student author of the best paper will receive a certificate after the conference.

Please direct questions to:
Cody Shelton, U.S Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal & Hydraulics Laboratory

Award Name

AIAA Fluid Dynamics (FD) Student Paper Competition

The AIAA Fluid Dynamics (FD) Student Paper Competition provides students the opportunity to share their research findings. Participation is open to all full-time undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in an engineering or scientific discipline at an accredited college or university. A cash prize of $300 will be awarded to the first-place winner, $200 to the second place, and $100 to the third place. Awards are based on a combination of the extended abstract, the final conference paper, and the presentation. The judges will use the extended abstracts to initially screen the competition entries. Further details of the eligibility and requirements for the submission and the judging criteria are provided below.

The competition results will be announced after the conference and checks will be mailed to the winners. All submissions must meet the deadlines for the conference given in the general information section of this Call for Papers. During the submission, please indicate that the paper is a Student Paper Competition Entry on the title page. Papers submitted to the FD Student Paper Competition will be presented in regular technical sessions with other papers in the relevant topic area. Student Paper Competition entries will be treated as regular AIAA conference papers in the conference proceedings and will be archived as AIAA papers.

Selection Criteria:

Criteria for judging include:

• The work’s importance in advancing the state of the art
• The technical approach
• Rationale for the work
• Sufficient and consistent results
• Verification and validation
• Style, clarity, and format of the paper and presentation

Please direct questions to:
Jeffery Schroeder, FAA

Award Name

Modeling and Simulation Technologies Best Student Paper Award

The AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Best Student Paper Award recognizes the best paper and presentation by a university student at the 2026 Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition on the topic of modeling and simulation.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules:

A minimum of 4 total submissions is required to have a special student session.  Presentations will be judged in a special student session.  The presentation results will be combined with judging results of the papers.  For both experience and professional feedback, students will present their paper twice at SciTech – first at the special student session, and second as part of a regular session that is most appropriate to their topic.  If at least 4 submissions are not received, a student’s submission will still be considered for the regular conference.

Selection Criteria:

Student paper presentations will be judged on technical content, use of media, delivery style, and organization and flow.   The written student papers will be judged on technical quality, importance/relevance, originality, and conciseness/style/clarity.

Please direct questions to:
Ana Paula Cuco, Embraer S.A.
Qiu Ju

Award Name

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Student Paper Competition

The MDO Student Paper Competition, sponsored by Airbus, encourages undergraduate and graduate students to submit papers to the technical topics listed in this call for papers. Co-authored papers are welcome; however, the first author must be an AIAA member and a registered student at the time the final paper is submitted. The student must have played a primary role in the research, the technical development and the writing of the paper. When submitting an abstract for the MDO Student Paper Competition, authors must choose a “Presentation Type” from the drop-down menu on the abstract submission website and click on “Student Paper Competition” and select the topic “Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization”. This will ensure that the abstract is submitted to the MDO topic. If you are unable to enter the student paper competition, because you must submit to a different topic, then please email the chair and ask to be included. Abstract acceptance notification will occur at the same time as the regular papers. Students will be notified if they are finalists, or not, approximately 2 weeks after the final papers are due. The finalists will present their papers in-person in a special MDO session during the first day of the AVIATION Forum.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

The deadline for the student paper abstracts is the same as the conference abstract deadline and the student paper abstracts will be reviewed in the same way as the regular conference abstracts. The full papers of the Student Paper Competition are due at the same time as the regular papers. No extensions will be granted to the full manuscript submission deadline if you wish to remain in contention for the award. At the time of the final submission the authors will be required to identify, through communication to the chair of the competition, the individual contributions of each listed co-author. Papers that do not show primary contributions from the first author will not be considered for this competition.

Selection Criteria:

The papers will be judged by expert reviewers, and finalists will be selected to present in-person at a special MDO session during the first day of the AVIATION Forum. The award decision will be based on both the paper and the presentation. The judging criteria are: i) the originality and technical quality of the work and its novelty and importance to the field; ii) the clarity of the presentation, with special emphasis given to visuals and their contribution to the understanding of the material; iii) the clarity of research objectives and the organization and conciseness of the paper. A soft word limit of 5000 will be imposed (not including abstract, figures, captions, or bibliography), with the judges’ discretion used to decide if additional length added meaningful value to the paper. First prize is $2,000 and the runner-up will receive $1,000.

Please direct questions to:
James Creel, Texas A&M

Award Name

Plasmadynamics and Lasers Student Paper Competition

The Plasmadynamics and Lasers (PDL) Technical Committee invites students to participate in the PDL Student Paper Competition at AIAA Aviation 2026. This competition provides a unique opportunity for students to showcase their original research in plasmadynamics, lasers, and related aerospace applications.  We encourage submissions across the full spectrum of PDL topics, including plasma-assisted combustion, plasma-based flow control, laser diagnostics, computational modeling, space plasmas, high-energy lasers, and emerging applications such as AI/ML-driven approaches.

Please direct questions to:
Tarek Abdel-Salam, East Carolina University
Aditeya Shukla, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Award Name

Sustainability Best Student Paper Award

The Sustainability Integration and Outreach Committee (SIOC) will present this award to the best student paper. Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Contribution to the field, relevance to SIOC, archival value, and overall merit.

Please direct questions to:
Amit Pandey, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Eldad Avital, Queen Mary, University of London
Ying Zheng, University of Western Ontario

Award Name

Terrestrial Energy Systems Best Student Paper Award

The Terrestrial Energy Systems (TES) Committee will present this award to the best student paper.

Selection Criteria:

Submissions will be evaluated on their contribution to the field, relevance to terrestrial energy, archival merit, validation of results, and the soundness and value of their conclusions.

Please direct questions to:
Srikanth Gururajan, Saint Louis University
Anaiya Reliford, Howard University

Award Name

Best Paper in Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems

Single paper awarded based on technical discipline selection criteria below.

Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Must be submitted/presented under any of the Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems topics.

Section Criteria

• Scope & significance of contribution
• Originality
• impact on the domain of unmanned systems
• Relevance: systems optimization and integration, simulation, flight testing, and implementation of technologies for the advancement of the unmanned systems domain