People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2021

Shikha Redhal is pursuing her doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India. She is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Advanced Propulsion Research Laboratory at UMD. Her current research focuses on studying the fundamental nature of Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) propulsion concepts. RDE is one of the novel engine concepts, gaining much interest from the aero propulsion industry, including the rocket and airbreathing propulsion community. She is studying the effect of dynamic interaction between propellant injection and the detonation wave inside RDE combustors. This study can be used to obtain qualitative insights into the complex RDE combustor processes and will provide the basis for developing novel and practical detonation-based engines.

She was the recipient of 2019 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Scholarship and was recognized among the exceptional women pursuing doctoral studies in the advanced field of aerospace engineering. She was also awarded the 2020 Gustave J Hokenson Aerospace Engineering Fellowship Award by the UMD Aerospace Engineering Department.

Outside of the academics, she was the member of National Service Scheme in India and organized blood donation camps, taught and educated underprivileged students. Currently, she is the Community Development Chair of the Women in Aeronautics and Astronautics (WIAA) at UMD and member of national chapter Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WoAA). After her PhD, she aims to work in the research institutions focusing in the space propulsion and contribute towards the development of next generation engines for aerospace industry.

Darryll J. Pines became UMD president in July 2020 and serves as the Glenn L. Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering. He arrived on campus in 1995 as an assistant professor, then served as chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2006–09 and for the following 11 years as dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the A. James Clark School of Engineering.

As dean, Pines revamped teaching in fundamental undergraduate courses; encouraged participation in national and international student competitions; emphasized sustainability engineering and service learning; and expanded innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Pines made diversity a hallmark of his tenure, increasing the number of faculty and students from underrepresented populations. With his leadership team, he secured a historic $219.5 million investment from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation in 2017 to fund need-based scholarships campus wide, as well as graduate fellowships, faculty positions, infrastructure and other initiatives.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Pines focuses his research on structural dynamics, smart sensors and adaptive, morphing and biologically inspired structures

as well as the guidance, navigation and control of aerospace vehicles. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Institute of Physics; chairs the Engineering Advisory Committee for NSF’s Engineering Directorate; and sits on the Board of Trustees for Underwriters Laboratory not-for-profit arm. Pines received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During her 28+ year tenure with NASA, Dr. Aprille Joy Ericsson has held numerous positions. In 2017, Dr. Ericsson assumed the position of New Business Lead (NBL) (and Acting Chief Technologist) for the NASA GSFC Instrument Systems and Technology Division. In this role she seeks to foster government partnerships that enables industry and small businesses to collaborate with universities, to solve strategic R&D challenges faced by United States government agencies.

In her role as NBL, she serves as engineering representative on the Astrophysics, Heliophysics, Planetary and Earth Science and Cross-Cutting Technology Lines of Business strategy teams. Just prior to that position, she served as the Project Manager for a proposed Astrophysics mid-sized Class Explorer, called STAR-X. Prior to that proposal development, Dr. Ericsson served as the NASA GSFC Program Manager for Small Business and Innovative Research in the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office. Formerly, she served as the Deputy to the Chief Technologist for the Engineering and Technology Directorate with a focus on cubesat and smallsat mission development. She has also served at NASA HQs as a Program Executive (PE) for Earth Science, and a Business Executive for Space Science.

For 10 years, Dr. Ericsson was an Instrument Project Manager (IPM) leading spaceflight mission teams and instruments proposal developments that include: the Near-Infrared Spectrograph on the James Webb Space Telescope; the Project Engineer for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (launched 2009); and, Instrument Proposal Manager for the SCIM Mars mission. For 3.5 years she served as the Acting IPM and Deputy IPM for ICESat-2’s (launched 2018) sole instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a $500M LIDAR instrument which continues to provide important observations of ice- sheet elevation change, sea-ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height begun by ICESat (-I), on which Dr. Ericsson was PE in 2003. Dr. Ericsson first joined GSFC as an Attitude Control Systems Analyst, where she developed practical control methods, and analyzed structural dynamics for several spacecraft missions and concepts.

She has served as an Adjunct Faculty member at several Universities. Currently, she sits on Academic boards at the National Academies (Board of Higher Education and Workforce), MIT (Industry Advisory Council for Minority Education), Chair of the Advisory Board for Howard University (HU) Department of Mechanical Engineering and previously as a HU Trustee and Blacks at MIT. She is Co-Lead Advisor for the Dynamic Mathematical Visionaries NSBE Jr. Chapter. Dr. Ericsson has served as an MIT Education counselor for the almost 15 years. She has also been a proposal reviewer for NSF and NASA.

Dr. Ericsson received her B.S. in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering from MIT. She received her Masters of Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, the Aerospace option from HU. Her graduate school research at HU was developing control methods for orbiting large space platforms like ISS. Dr. Ericsson has been honored with numerous awards, some of the most prestigious are from the Western Society of Engineers – “The 2016 Washington Award”, and The Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta PI – Distinguished Alumnus. She is proud to be the first (African American) female to receive a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from HU; the first American to receive a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, the Aerospace option from HU; and the first African American female to receive a Ph.D. in Engineering at NASA GSFC.

Garth Coleman is an expert in the areas of CAD, PDM, and PLM, with a deep understanding of cloud, change & configuration management, 3D visualization, and immersive virtual reality technologies. While at Dassault Systèmes, he has worked on ENOVIA mid-market solutions; ENOVIA cloud offers; Energy & Materials industry solutions; and spent several years leading the enterprise product strategy, marketing, and global technical sales for the 3DVIA brand.

Garth is currently the VP Marketing for the ENOVIA brand. He holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering & Society from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada), and graduated summa cum laude from Babson College in Massachusetts with an MBA focusing on Entrepreneurship. He is an avid skier, a dive master, an aspiring guitarist, and holds a black belt in a Korean martial art called Kuk Sool Won.

Tom joined Sandia in 2010 and has held a variety of staff and management positions in engineering research and development including work in the semiconductor, radar, satellite, and telemetry technology domains.

In his current position, Tom is the Deputy Director of Advanced Systems and Transformation responsible for the Digital Engineering Transformation of Sandia’s core Nuclear Deterrence (ND) Mission. His organization has responsibility for defining and sponsoring improvements in the digital engineering ecosystem and in providing MBSE capabilities to support the environment. This also includes research, design and development of ND specific data systems and in leading the ND Data Strategy.

In addition to his time at Sandia, Tom has 23 plus years of semiconductor industry experience including 10 years at Intel Corporation and 13 years at Philips Semiconductors. His experience and expertise span research and development, new product introduction, product delivery and manufacturing.

Tom has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico and has bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and in biology also from the University of New Mexico. Tom holds two U.S. patents in non-volatile memory design and in mixed signal circuit design.

Tom has been married to his wife, Danielle, for 37 years and has two sons, Matthew and Taylor. In his spare time, he enjoys cars, guitars and model railroading.

Dr. Sanjiv Singh is an innovator, educator, and entrepreneur. He is currently a Consulting Professor at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University and the CEO of Near Earth Autonomy, a start-up that develops autonomy for next-generation aircraft that will inspect infrastructure, deliver cargo, and transport people.

Dr. Singh started his career in 1985, working on the first autonomous ground vehicles to operate outdoors. Since then, he has led research and development efforts with applications in aviation, agriculture, mining, and construction. In 2010 he led a team that demonstrated the first autonomous full-scale helicopter capable of take-off, landing zone evaluation, and safe descent. In 2011 he led the autonomy effort for Transformer, DARPA’s flying car program. From 2012-2017, he led the perception efforts for ONR’s AACUS program that demonstrated high-performance autonomous flight for three classes of rotorcraft. He currently leads several autonomous aerial cargo transport and inspection projects. Dr. Singh obtained his Ph.D. in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon in 1995. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Field Robotics, a TEDx speaker, and a co-founder of 4 companies.

Dr. Natalia Alexandrov has been conducting and leading research in a broad range of multidisciplinary applications and methodologies in the area of complex system analysis and design at NASA. Her current interests are in modeling and control of heterogeneous cyber-physical-human systems governed by autonomous algorithms and human-machine teams. She now serves as co-PI of the ATTRACTOR (Autonomy Teaming & TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability) feasibility study, aimed at developing actionable criteria of trust and trustworthiness in autonomous systems. She is also on detail as the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Liaison. Dr. Alexandrov received her Ph.D. in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for the development of variable-fidelity model management in PDE-constrained design optimization. She is an AIAA Associate Fellow and serves on the Executive Council of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Steering Committee of the Business, Industry, and Government (BIG) Math Network.

David Hansell is the Global Head of Aviation Regulation and Policy for Loon LLC. In this role, David is working to harmonize the regulatory environment for stratospheric operations around the world through partnership with civil aviation authorities and air navigation service providers in order to develop and implement aviation regulations which encourage innovation without sacrificing safety.

Prior to joining Loon, David was a public policy director for DJI and was the Global Aviation Policy Lead for Facebook. Previously, David served as Director for Transportation Security Policy on the National Security Council, where he worked as the lead aviation subject matter expert for the National Security Advisor and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism during the Obama Administration. David previously served as an Intelligence Officer and National Security Liaison for both the FAA and TSA, an Air Traffic Controller for the US Air Force, and was an aircrew member and translator for Air Force Special Operations Command.

David earned a Bachelor of Science in Professional Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.