2026
Lab member Coleman Rohde was awarded NSFGRP, a highly prestigious fellowship worth $159,000. Congratulations Coleman!
Humza Aizad, an undergraduate researcher in the lab, recently presented his research on LIPIT Launchpad Design & Optimization at the Utah Undergraduate Research Symposium. Congratulations Humza!
Lab member Qui Ngo was recently awarded the DoD SMART scholarship, a very competitive program worth $100,000. Congratulations Qui!
Salt Lake City news station KUTV interviewed Dr. Prameela regarding the Artemis II launch, mission goals, and how Utah has contributed to the rockets design and construction. Watch the short interview here, and view the article here.
Aerospace America recently posted an article regarding GRX-810, a nickel superalloy created by NASA for use in reusable rocket engines. Recent NASA funded research at STARS, as well as comments from Dr. Prameela, are included. Read the article here to learn more!
Dr. Prameela recently visited Texas A&M to connect with various faculty (Dr. Hande Ozcan, Dr. Kelvin Xie, and Dr. Brady Butler) and attend NASA AM-TPS, where he was hosted by Dr. Thomas Lacy and Dr. Nathan Tichenor on a tour of various labs and facilities on the RELLIS campus.
Dr. Prameela was recently hosted by Dr. Nicholas Bochler, Dr. Hyunsun Alicia Kim, and Dr. Olivia Graeve at UC San Diego Materials Science Engineering & Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering departments. Thanks to all for the discussion and hospitality!
Several members of STARS had the opportunity to attend and present at TMS 2026, including Dr. Prameela, Naveen Dinujaya, and undergraduates Will Lee and Humza Aizad. Here they had the unique opportunity to meet various leaders in materials research, including Dr. Bill Nix and Dr. Eduard Arzt.
Some of our undergraduate students sponsored by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program here at the University of Utah, and were recently featured in short interviews on their social media. Congratulations to Emily Jolley, Will Lee, and Humza Aizad!
Dr. Prameela had the opportunity to visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he met Dr. Douglas Hofmann, a senior research scientist who worked on the Mars Rover!
Aerospace Corporation’s Dr. Yanice Benitez and Dr. Andres Jimenez recently hosted Dr. Prameela during his trip to Los Angeles!
Dr. Prameela was recently hosted by Dr. Guruswami Ravichandran and Dr. Angkur Shaikeea for a visit at Caltech, thanks for the invitation!
Congratulations Pavan Vasa, who was admitted to the Wilkes Scholar Program and awarded funding this spring!
Congratulations to lab members Andrew Wan, Emily Jolley, Will Tran, and Abby Blatter who won UROP funding this spring!
Kennedie Wilding, one of our graduate students, received funding from ACerS Engineering Ceramics Division to present at ICACC 2026! Congratulations Kennedie!
Dr Prameela was recently invited to attend a seminar by Dr. Haoran Wang at Utah State University, where he discussed particle impact testing and propulsion materials. Additionally, he had the opportunity to virtually give a guest lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in which he discussed hypersonic flight materials and some of our work here at STARS Labs. Thanks to both for the invite, and for being gracious hosts!
2025
Our Fall 2025 semester came to a close with a ‘Labsgiving’ potluck event, during which we socialized, watched a movie, and sampled food from various cultures represented in our lab!
Lab members Naveen Dinujaya, Will Lee, Abby Blatter, Humza Aizad, Duke Nguyen, Dinh Ly, and Tam Vo attended the Utah Zero Gravity Summit with Dr. Prameela to meet industry professionals.
We were honored to host Prof. Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran from Caltech, who spoke on “Dynamic Behavior of Lattice Structures.”
We had the opportunity to have Prof. Colin Ophus from Stanford University visit and give a seminar titled “4D-STEM for Metrology and Materials Characterization.”
Jackson Johns received the NASA OSTEM internship over the summer, and had the opportunity to work at NASA Glenn, congratulations!
We recently hosted Prof. Nutth Tuchinda, Assistant Professor at NJIT, who lead a seminar titled “Tailoring Defects in Polycrystalline Alloys Through Segregation Engineering.”
We hosted an open day for high school students, and had the opportunity to meet incoming Aerospace and STEM students. We hope to see some of them here at the U soon!
We had the opportunity to have Dr. Luis Barroso-Luque, Research Engineer at Meta Fundamental AI Research, who gave a talk titled “Exploring the Frontier of Universal Machine Learning Potentials”
Lab member Jesse Leyva-Zavala received the Gen Next scholarship, congratulations!
We were happy to host Prof. Angkur Shaikeea, Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Bren Scholar at Caltech. He spoke on “Constitutive Modeling from Local Stress–Strain Responses: Opportunities with Advanced Imaging.”
PhD Kennedie Wilding has been awarded the NASA OSTEM internship to support her research projects here at STARS Labs.
Humza Aizad, Milo Atwood, Will Lee, and Emily Jolley have received the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) scholarship for their research here at STARS Labs, congratulations!
Industry collaborator visits STARS Lab space
Industry collaborator visits STARS Lab and University of Utah lab space
Naveen Dinujaya and Professor Suhas visit TMS Las Vegas to meet industry representatives and fellow researchers.
Garrett Baker, Nicole Payne, Naveen Dinujaya, and Professor Suhas visit ARO.
Kennedie Wilding joins STARS lab as a PhD, welcome!
Nicole Payne, Sam Moten, Warren Stone, Collin Philips, Asher Young, and Andrew Koenig join STARS lab as undergraduate researchers.
Garrett Baker, Jackson Johns, and Maxwell Brinkerhoff receive UROP funding for their research in STARS Labs.
2024
STARS lab celebrates the end of 2024 with a lab outing
Max and Dr. Prameela visit 47G expo and had the opportunity to interact with industry leaders and research peers.
Garrett Baker, Jackson Johns, and Maxwell Brinkerhoff join STARS lab as undergraduate students.
Naveen Dinujaya has joined STARS lab as a PhD. student, welcome!
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