Hongzhao "Joseph" Liu, ME undergraduate student, has won second place in the 2006-2007 AIAA Undergraduate Individual Aircraft Design Competition for the paper "Euclid: A New Light sport Airplane."

In this competition, the participants of were asked to design a aircraft that met the design requirements set forth in the competition RFP (Request For Proposal). For the 2006/2007 competition, the topic was to design a two seat aircraft that is compliant with FAA's Special Light Sport Aircraft Category.

Liu's design was completed over the course of seven months (12/2006 - 6/2007) under the guidance of ME Professor Ömer Savaş. The aircraft is named "Euclid."

Hongzhao Liu is currently a senior at the ME department. His technical interests are mechanics, applied mathematics, and flight vehicle design. Liu is from Redlands, California, and graduated from Grove High School (now The Grove School), Redlands, in 2004.