VSCL - Key Persons
Abigail Andrews is a sophomore Aerospace Engineering student and was raised in Troy, TX. Andrews has a passion for both aviation and design. She received her private pilot certificate in January of 2021 and her instrument rating in August 2023. While Andrews attended VSCL meetings in the spring, she is excited to join as an official VSCL Undergraduate Researcher in Fall of 2023 to pursue her passion for aviation through flight research.
Adam Glaesmann is a Senior pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Aerospace Engineering and has been an active member of VSCL since the Spring of 2023. His current work with VSCL is in creating a graphical user interface (GUI) for communicating with a flight vehicle from a ground station computer. He enjoys working with computer systems and the exposure to the types of problem solving that working in the lab brings, which is not typically seen in the classroom. In his free time likes to go rock climbing.
Aidan Timofte is a sophomore in the Department of Aerospace Engineering from Austin, TX. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science with minors in Astrophysics and Mathematics. Joining the lab in Spring of 2024, He hopes to contribute to the research of Multiple-Time-Scale Nonlinear Systems. Aside from VSCL, He also participates in the AIAA CanSat Design Team. Having always been passionate in the advancement of spacecraft technology, Aidan hopes to contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding spacecraft dynamics and the growing field of autonomous spacecraft control.
Allison Barnes is a freshman from Odessa, Texas pursing a Bachelors of Science in Engineering. She is interested in pursuing project management within the aerospace industry. Barnes is looking forward to becoming more involved in VSCL and is excited to start pursuing her passion for flight testing and research. Prior to joining VSCL, she interned at a lab at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
Ankush Rao is a sophomore Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science student from Austin, TX. Ankush aims to pursue his interests in guidance and navigation technology, along with space system design. Joining VSCL in Spring 2024, he will be working on Enhancing the Cycle-of-Learning for Autonomous Systems to Facilitate Human-Agent Teaming. In addition, he is a part of AggieSat Laboratory and is a researcher at the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center. Ankush is looking forward to gaining valuable skills and insight through the combination of Computer Science and Aviation.
Antonio Weaver is a Senior in the Department of Aerospace Engineering pursuing a Bachelor of Science. He is expected to graduate in May 2024 and has been a member of VSCL since Summer 2022. At VSCL, he has contributed towards the System Identification (SysID) project and the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). In Summer 2023, he participated in the SEC Directed Internship, where he worked on a team with three other students to develop a user application in collaboration with an industry mentor.
Bella Grayson is a sophomore Aerospace Engineering student from Washington. Bella's interest in aerospace engineering sparks from her fathers involvement in the US Air Force as a pilot. As a member of VSCL she has analyzed wind tunnel data for the RMRC Anaconda, a fixed wing sUAS platform used on the System Identification and Target Tracking projects. She is excited to get more involved with flight testing on the CAAMS and KAMS projects.
Carla Zaramella is a Senior pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Aerospace Engineering and minoring in Mathematics. She has been a member of VSCL since January 2022 and has contributed towards the System Identification project and aided with Flight Testing. Carla has interned with Raytheon Technologies over the last two summers, working on land/air radar defense systems.
Cassie-Kay McQuinn graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering with Summa Cum Laude and Engineering Honors. Cassie-Kay is a M.S. student and has been an active member of VSCL since Fall 2021, working in system identification. In addition to completing Engineering Honors, she is a Presidential Endowed Scholar, the 2021 Aerospace Engineering Advisory Board Scholarship recipient, and has earned a certificate of Holistic Leadership in Engineering through completion of the Zachry Leadership Program. She is the current President of the Texas A&M chapter of the Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society. While being a grad student she has interned with Sandia National Labs and most recently with the Air Force Research Lab researching safe autonomy for aerospace systems. As an undergraduate she interned with L3Harris Technologies working in the Structural Analysis and Structural Design departments. Cassie-Kay's main interests include flight test engineering, aircraft dynamics and system identification.
Chantz Elliott graduated in Spring of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. He has been an active member of VSCL since Fall of 2023, working on flight test validation of small fixed-wing aircraft at RELLIS. Chantz interned at Air Tractor during the summer of 2023 and will be interning at Scaled Composites for the summer of 2024 before returning to Texas A&M to pursue a Master of Engineering in Aerospace Engineering.
Christian Flewelling is a class of 2026 Engineering major studying Mechatronics. He joined VSCL in the Fall of 2023, working on embedded systems for the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project. Outside of the VSCL, Christian is an officer for the Texas A&M University Robotics Team and Leadership Experience robotics club.
Ella Joliet is a sophomore Aerospace Engineering student from Indianapolis, Indiana. She is interested in exploratory space vehicle design and development and is currently in pursuit of her Private Pilot's License. After participating in staff meetings for VSCL in Spring of 2023, she is excited to be more involved in VSCL projects in the Fall of 2023. Joliet intends to graduate in 2026 with a Bachelor's of Science and a Spanish Minor.
Erin has over five years of experience in industry at Boeing as a guidance, navigation, and control engineer in the Advanced Autonomous Systems group. Her work involved guidance and control system development for a variety of aerial platforms including UAVs, high performance aircraft, and guided weapons. During graduate school, she has interned at NASA and Sandia National Laboratories doing flight control research and development. Her professional and research background includes significant work using robust and adaptive control to address challenges in flight, particularly for hypersonic vehicles. She has also conducted research sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories to develop a new methodology to improve performance of machine learning algorithms for sparse data sets. Her current research interests focus on implementable and verifiable algorithms that allow the safe use of machine learning in guidance and control architectures. Erin earned a B.S. in Systems Science and Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. With VSCL, Erin will be contributing towards the Center for Autonomous Air Mobility and Sensing (CAAMS) which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Evelyn Madewell graduated from the University of Washington in May 2024 with a BS in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and a Minor in Applied Mathematics. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant and test pilot in the Autonomous Flight Systems Lab. Her research background includes wilderness search and rescue, hazard aware landing optimization, and beyond visual line of sight operations, which she presented at the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum. Evelyn has interned with Freefly Systems as a flight test engineer, where she programmed a novel testing procedure for the Astro commercial drone platform, and is currently investigating Sequential Triangulation as a way of solving 3D visual navigation in GPS-denied scenarios with Hood Technology. With her interest in flight test engineering and UAV controls, Evelyn's work with VSCL will begin by contributing to the Real-time System Identification of UAS project.
Gabriel Eskridge is a class of 2026 Engineering major hoping to pursue Aerospace Engineering. He has been an active member of VSCL since Fall of 2022 working on the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project.
Garrett Jares is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, a 2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory. Garrett earned his B.S. degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University with minors in Cybersecurity and Mathematics, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2017. He has been working in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory (VSCL) with his advisor, Dr. John Valasek, since his undergraduate senior capstone project in 2017. During his undergraduate education, Garrett studied extensively in cybersecurity including research in cryptography topics. Garrett's work with VSCL has involved developing embedded systems for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), conducting UAS flight testing operations, and overseeing the operation of the Engineering Flight Simulator Laboratory. Garrett is combining his undergraduate knowledge in Computer Science with his experience gained in Aerospace Engineering to investigate Cybersecurity for air and space vehicles.
Garrett's doctoral dissertation investigates cyber-attacks that are designed to take control of an aircraft by targeting the vehicle's sensor data. This research will help identify and better understand the vulnerabilities in current systems and develop safeguards against such attacks. Garrett is a recipient of the 2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Crawford & Hattie Jackson Foundation Scholarship, the Edward C. Clay '47 Memorial Scholarship, and the 2018 Lechner Graduate Fellowship.
Halle Vandersloot is a sophomore pursuing a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering with a Mathematics minor. She is a Track Coordinator for Aggie Astronaut Corps, and wants to eventually work for NASA doing Orbital Trajectory Design.
Jillian Bennett, a member of VSCL since March of 2023, graduated on May 12th with her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Minor in Mathematics. She will begin her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering with the VSCL this Fall. As an undergrad, Jillian was an active member of the Aerospace Ambassador program, becoming lead ambassador her senior year. She also welcomed freshmen to Texas A&M as a Fish Camp chair in the Summer of 2022. Additionally in the Summer of 2022 she was the recipient of the Undergraduate Student Research Grant from Texas A&M. She has interned with Los Alamos National Laboratory and TAMU Material Science and Engineering, working on characterizing impacted materials. She has changed paths, gaining an interest in flight test engineering, reinforcement learning, and adaptive controls. She is beginning her graduate degree with a project with ONR on Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Committee
- Director, Vehicle Systems
- Member of the AIAA Unmanned Systems Technical Program Committee
- Professor, Aerospace Engineering Department Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory / Associate Editor, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics
John Valasek is Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory, Thaman Professor of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and member of the Honors Faculty at Texas A&M University (TAMU). He has been actively conducting autonomy and flight controls research of Manned and Unmanned Air Vehicles in both Industry and Academia for 34 years. He began his career as a Flight Control Engineer for the Northrop Corporation, Aircraft Division where he worked in the Flight Controls Research Group, and on the AGM-137 Tri-Services Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) program. Dr. Valasek has been with TAMU since 1997, where he teaches courses in Modern Control of Aerospace Systems, Vehicle Management Systems, Atmospheric Flight Mechanics, Flight Test Engineering, Cockpit Systems & Displays, and Aircraft Design. In response to industry requests to address the problem of integrating multidisciplinary technologies in the aerospace field he created the senior/graduate level course AERO 445 Vehicle Management Systems in 2006, which was the first regularly offered course on this topic in a U.S. aerospace engineering department. He is currently writing a book for the AIAA Education Series on this topic. In 2019 Dr. Valasek completely revised the course organization and content of three courses, and taught them: AERO 201 Introduction to Aerospace Engineering, AERO 401 Aerospace Vehicle Design, and AERO 425 Flight Test Engineering.
Dr. Valasek is currently a member of the AIAA Unmanned Systems Technical Program Committee, and the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee for which he is currently the Chair Elect. He is a former member and Chair of the AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee, as well as the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technical Committee and the AIAA General Aviation Technical Committee. As Chair of the AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee he created the Best Student Paper Award, which has been awarded annually at the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference since 2001. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. Dr. Valasek is a Senior Member of IEEE, and Member of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and American Society of Engineering Educators
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer, Bush Combat Development Complex / Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering
Kameron Eves is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. He also received minors in mathematics and business. At BYU, Kameron worked in the Multiple Agent Intelligent Coordination and Control (MAGICC) laboratory. At the VSCL, Kameron fills a variety of roles. He spent two years designing, building, and testing a 50 lb multirotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) for the army to use in autonomous reconnaissance. Kameron was responsible for the software, embedded systems, and dynamic analysis of this UAV. Kameron's dissertation topic is Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems with specific application to hypersonic aircraft. Kameron's research interests are theoretical and computational dynamics and control of aerospace systems. Additionally, he is interested in engineering teaching methods in higher education. Professionally, he plans to join academia and teach at a university.
Katelyn Lancaster is a Senior pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a Mathematics minor. She has been an active member of VSCL since Fall 2020 working in flight test operations, system identification, and the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project. Katelyn will be continuing her system identification work with a fall project integrating SIDPAC analysis for our current vehicles. Katelyn has interned the previous 3 summers at Lockheed Martin working in Configuration Management and Flight Test Engineering.
Kylie Johannes is a senior mechatronics engineering student with minors in mathematics and embedded systems
Laura Escamilla is a sophomore specializing in Applied Mathematics Computational Science and has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2022. Laura possesses hands-on experience, having actively participated in multiple test flights in handling small fixed-wing aircraft at RELLIS. In addition, Laura interned at VSCL in summer 0f 2023 where she worked using Vector Nav technology to calibrate servos on small fixed-wing vehicles. Laura also had testing at Texas A&M University Oran W. Nick Low-Speed Wind Tunnel, where she got to experience a real-world testing environment. With a profound interest in Computer Science, flight testing, and embedded systems, she consistently seeks opportunities to bridge theory and application.
Leron Gundlur is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with Engineering Honors. He is also minoring in Mathematics and Astrophysics. Leron attended VSCL staff meetings throughout the Fall ‘23 semester and is joining VSCL as an Undergraduate Researcher from Spring ‘24. He has been deeply passionate about aviation from a young age and is an avid flight simulation enthusiast. Leron plans to pursue a Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering after finishing his Bachelor degree. Post-graduation he is interested in working on air and space systems and further exploration of the Solar System and Milky Way.
Luis Munoz is a senior pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Aerospace Engineering. He has been an active member of VSCL since summer 2023. He has worked on flight testing of the labs primary flight platform in the Texas A&M University Oran W. Nicks Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. He has experience working as a research assistant at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) aerospace center designing a CubeSat model. His interests are in flight controls and dynamics.
Job Titles:
- Director, LASR Laboratory / Department of Aerospace Engineering / Research Interests
2nd Lieutenant Noah Luna, USAF, is a Master's student in the aerospace engineering department. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a B.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Science. During his undergraduate studies, he performed research on a neural network based flight control system for an ongoing fixed-wing project through the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). Additionally, he completed an internship and further research with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works as a Software and Flight Test engineer developing nonlinear adaptive flight controls for aerial systems. He has been selected to go to pilot training after earning his Master's degree from Texas A&M. At VSCL, Noah will be working on Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems.
Paige Warren is a Honors General Engineering Major from Austin, Texas. She's been a math tutor for over 5 years and hopes to get accepted into the Aerospace Engineering major in the spring of 2024. From there she wants to continue her journey with the VSCL lab and work in flight testing and research.
Job Titles:
- Master of Science Student
Payton Clem is a Master of Science Student in the Aerospace Engineering department. She is graduating from Texas A&M with her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with Minors in Mathematics and Astrophysics in Fall 2023. During her undergrad, she was involved in campus activities like working at the Memorial Student Center to provide support to her fellow Aggies, and was a member of P.S.U.N., an on campus organization that provides free programs and events to children with special needs. Finding an interest in research, she worked in Dr. Daniel Selva's lab, SEAK, on a NASA SBIR project with Aureus Innovation to develop a new systems engineering language. This involved creating a satellite design from scratch using systems engineering diagrams with the SIMPL developing language. Within the SEAK lab she also assisted in developing a rule based planner that would be used in a space mission simulation for space mission design. She was also the project lead of her capstone design group, which provided a satellite constellation design, as well as mission planning software to aid in the solution of an on-orbit servicing problem for L3Harris. As she continued her research, Payton developed an interest into the applications of artificial intelligence within the aerospace engineering field. Payton became a member of VSCL in her senior year, applying her interest in AI by working on the Robust Threat Detection project, research she will continue during her Masters. Her work with VSCL will be primarily focused on Autonomous, Nonlinear Control of Air, Space and Ground Systems.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Laboratory Technical
Sadie Binz is a junior majoring in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in mathematics. She is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society and SAE Aero Design Team. Sadie has interned at Bell Helicopter with the Flight Technology team during flight testing of the Bell 525 Relentless, and she is excited to intern at Bell again in the summer. From this experience, Sadie developed an interest in flight testing and hopes to get her private pilot's license in the future.
Sarah Rosinbaum is a Senior pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Mathematics. She has been a member of VSCL since the Fall of 2020, working in documentation revision and inertial testing of vehicles. Sarah has interned at Texas Turbine Conversions inspecting aircraft parts and at Alpine Advanced Materials as an engineering/quality intern.
Seth Johnson is a sophomore pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Computer Science. He is expected to graduate in December 2025 and has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2022. He has worked on various projects throughout VSCL including the Center for Autonomous Air Mobility and Sensing, Cycle of Learning, and Robust Threat Detection. Seth interned with VectorNav Technologies during the Summer of 2023. His interests are in flight test engineering, flight control system, embedded systems, and navigation engineering.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health ( Courtesy Appointment ) Research Interests
Dr. Ferris' research interests are in Human Factors and Cognitive Ergonomics, and can be described as the study of cognition in human-machine engineered systems. His primary focus involves human information processing and design to support attention and interruption management. In particular, he investigates novel interface design techniques, employing alternative display modalities such as the sense of touch. Other research interests include human error, decision making under time pressure, and human-automation interaction. He has interest and experience in applying his research to the domains of medicine (anesthesiology), military operations (command and control, UV control and operations), aviation (cockpit automation, air traffic control), and ground transportation.
Zachary Curtis graduated from Utah Tech, in May 2024 with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. Throughout his undergraduate years, he pursued various internships to broaden his practical experience. At RAM Aviation Space & Defense, he interned within the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) group, the prototyping lab, and the controls engineer group, gaining insights into different facets of mechanical engineering. Additionally, he had the opportunity to intern at Baxter Aerospace, a consulting group, where he worked as a mechanical engineer specializing in designing liquid nitrogen baths for application in nuclear fusion research. Furthermore, during his junior year he engaged in research activities at Utah Tech under the guidance of PhD Monty Kennedy, focusing on Shock and Vibration testing. This involved utilizing the NASA-sponsored Shock Sat testing device to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of shock testing on spacecraft.