Academics

BP honors Schreyer Scholar for engineering promise

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The global aviation industry produces roughly 2 to 4 percent of all human-induced carbon dioxide emissions, depending on which statistics are cited.

Penn State sophomore Himavath Jois believes that figure can and should be reduced.

The Schreyer Honors Scholar and aerospace engineering major won a scholarship from BP that will allow him to put $5,000 toward tuition. Jois will attend a reception for himself and other award winners hosted by the global energy company Aug. 3-4 in Houston, Texas.

As part of the application process, Jois answered essay questions about what excited him about the future of science and engineering, and he had plenty to say.

“I realized that my interests mesh perfectly with the movement of the energy industry, in particular a high interest in aerodynamic efficiency,” he said. “I am determined to make an impact on the future of our planet and conserve our energy resources.”

Another question asked Jois to recall an instance where he had to overcome a challenge, and he chose a story about working on a robotics project in ninth grade. 

A team project.

“Teamwork was somewhat difficult for me,” he said. “I was so excited to work on the robots in the shop in high school, it was difficult for me to interact.”

Jois learned to work with others, and he will spend this fall in a lab with Cengiz Camci, a Penn State aerospace engineering professor, studying the fluid dynamics of jet engines and how to improve the efficiency of air flow and heat transfer between them. He tentatively plans to build his honors thesis around one of those concepts.

Jois also is considering a dual major in physics and working to earn a master’s degree, potentially taking on another thesis, once he completes his aerospace engineering degree. After that, he hopes to take on his goal of making commercial aircraft more efficient.

“I think I would want to take an R&D job, a job that I can be doing research on different types of aerodynamic structures, whether that be for aircraft or for actual jet engines,” he said, “and not only just sit back and do research on these things but at the same time apply the things we learned in the labs toward the final product.”

Last Updated July 25, 2017