DR. KALPANA CHAWLA
BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD

DR. KALPANA CHAWLA

Astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia

Bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College,India, 1982. Master of science degree in aerospace engineering from University of Texas, 1984. Doctorate of philosophy in aerospace engineering from University of Colorado, 1988.
In 1988, Kalpana Chawla started work at NASA Ames Research Center in the area of powered- lift computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of complex air flows encountered around aircraft such as the Harrier in "ground-effect." Following completion of this project she supported research in mapping of flow solvers to parallel computers, and testing of these solvers by carrying out powered lift computations. In 1993 Kalpana Chawla joined Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California, as Vice President and Research Scientist to form a team with other researchers specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems.
In November, 1996, Kalpana Chawla was assigned as mission specialist and prime robotic arm operator on STS-87 (November 19 to December 5, 1997). STS-87 was the fourth U.S Microgravity Payload flight and focused on experiments designed to study how the weightless environment of space affects various physical processes, and on observations of the Sun's outer atmospheric layers. Two members of the crew performed an EVA (spacewalk) which featured the manual capture of a Spartan satellite, in addition to testing EVA tools and procedures for future Space Station assembly. In completing her first mission, Kalpana Chawla traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth and logged 376 hours and 34 minutes in space. In January, 1998, Kalpana Chawla was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and station flight crew equipment. Subsequently, she was assigned as the lead for Astronaut Office's Crew Systems and Habitability section.
ABOUT THE AWARD:
The award is a silver replica of Space Shuttle Columbia on a Rose wood platform. It carries a citation and a certificate. The award is instituted in memory of Dr. Kalpana Chalwa and is to recognize the contribution of high quality/original innovative papers from students. The award is sponsored by Bangalore Chapter of ACM.
The students wishing to apply for this award should send their full paper selected for presentation/publications at any international conferences/workshops/Conventions/Tr ansactions/Journals along with the author biographies to the chair of Bangalore Chapter of ACM. The Papers should be on topics related to computing and should be published/selected for presentation during the period of June 2002 to June 2003. All the authors of the paper should be students. There will be separate undergraduate and postgraduate categories.
All the papers will be reviewed by expert committee which will select the papers for the best paper award.

CONTACT FOR FURTHER DETAILS:
Dr. Suthikshn Kumar
Chair-Bangalore Chapter of ACM
Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd.
4th Floor, #2 Church Street,
Bangalore 560 001 India
Suthikshn.Kumar@lntinfotech.com
Phone: 91-80-5323734/5/6
Fax: 91-80-5323738