2013 International Competition

Congratulations to the 2013 UNM Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team!  The 2013 team took the program to the highest level achieved by any team in the program’s 14-year
history. The team finished 12th in the international competition in Lincoln Nebraska, out of
80 registered entries from around the world.   Although the 2012 team finished in 10th place, the 2013 team scored the most points that UNM has ever scored. The UNM team finished 7th in design and 9th in marketing presentation. The 7th place finish in design was the best finish ever for a UNM team. The team also finished 14th in acceleration event, 17th in the skid pad
event, and 15th in the autocross event. Completing the 22-lap endurance run in 12th
place assured the team a high finish.

Dr. Chris Hall appointed department Chairman

In August 2011, Professor Hall was appointed Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at University of New Mexico. He served as the Department Head of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech from 2006 – 2011. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he served in the USAF as an electronics technician, as a satellite systems engineer at the “Blue Cube” at Onizuka Air Force Base in Sunnyvale, California, and as a professor of spacecraft dynamics, control, and design at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1997, where he focused on developing new space-related opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education. He is past Chair of the AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee and has served on the AAS Space Flight Mechanics Committee. He has served as Associate Editor and Book Review Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Associate Editor of the AAS Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, and Associate Editor of the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. Professor Hall has advised 11 Ph.D. students and more than 40 M.S. students. Several of these former students are senior field grade officers in the U.S. Air Force; one is a NASA Astronaut; and several are dynamics and control experts at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Professor Hall is currently advising three Ph.D. students. Dr. Hall has published more than 100 technical papers on various subjects in dynamics and control. He earned his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University, M.S. in Systems Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University.