The Joint Hypersonic Transition Office (JHTO) University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH) hosted a student meet and greet at the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) SciTech Forum in San Diego, California, on January 5, 2022.
AIAA SciTech Forum is the world’s largest aerospace research, development, and technology event. The meet and greet was a chance for interested students to talk to professionals in the community, gain insight, and understand career and scholastic opportunities. Seventy experts from across the spectrum of the hypersonic community joined more than 50 students at the event.
“This meet and greet was an opportunity to inspire students and to understand the future of hypersonics;” stated Dr. Gillian Bussey, Director, JHTO. “The JHTO is planning to move out across a spectrum of workforce strategies that include surveys, research, curricula, internships, scholarships, and today’s event provided momentum for these student activities in 2022.”
In October 2021, the JHTO selected 18 U.S. university-led research teams from UCAH as awardees for prototyping contracts totaling $25.5 million. The government anticipates awarding numerous prototyping/research projects each fiscal year. The project topics will span various areas within applied and advanced research.
About the University Consortium of Applied Hypersonics (UCAH)
UCAH is a collective network of universities partnering with government, industry, national laboratories, federally funded research and development centers, and university-affiliated research centers to serve the U.S. Department of Defense requirements in hypersonics-related science and technology workforce development, and technology transition. UCAH is a five-year, $100-million consortium funded by the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office and led by Dr. Rodney Bowersox, executive director, UCAH, and associate dean for research, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. For more information about UCAH, contact Rebecca Marianno, UCAH program director, TEES, ucah@tamu.edu.
About the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO)
The JHTO, operating within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, is responsible for accelerating hypersonics technology development, developing the nation’s future hypersonics workforce, and facilitating the transition of ready technologies into operational capabilities. For more information about the JHTO Office, contact Taisha Cobb, Frontier Technology, Inc., contractor, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (R&E)/JHTO, tcobb@mail.mil.