People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2022

Matt Eggers is a technology and business leader with experience across sales, marketing, finance, product, and operations. Before joining BEV, Matt was VP of Yardi Energy at Yardi Systems, the largest SaaS software company in the real estate industry. At Yardi Matt led the energy and high performing buildings division where he built a team that launched several new products and implemented systems for over thirty of the largest real estate companies in North America. Prior to Yardi, Matt was Vice President of North American Sales at Tesla and was also VP of Operations and Software Product Management at Sunrun Inc. At Sunrun, he led the operations and software product functions as Sunrun grew from 30 employees and 2,000 residential solar customers to 1,200 employees and 55,000 customers. He also served in management roles at Bloom Energy and Genentech.

Matt has a B.S. in molecular biology from Duke University, and an MBA from Stanford. He is a Board member of The Institute for Market Transformation, and the Duke University Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment.

Dr. Sandra H. “Sandy” Magnus is a Principal at AstroPlanetview, LLC and a part time Professor of the Practice at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Ga Tech she was the Deputy Director of Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering. She also served as the Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession for five and a half years. Selected to the NASA Astronaut Corps in April, 1996, Dr. Magnus flew in space on the STS-112 shuttle mission in 2002, and on the final shuttle flight, STS-135, in 2011. In addition, she flew to the International Space Station on STS-126 in November 2008, served as flight engineer and science officer on Expedition 18, and returned home on STS-119 after four and a half months on board. Following her assignment on Station, she served at NASA Headquarters in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Her last duty at NASA, after STS-135, was as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office. Before joining NASA, Dr. Magnus worked for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company from 1986 to 1991, as a stealth engineer. While at McDonnell Douglas, she worked on internal research and development and on the Navy’s A-12 Attack Aircraft program, studying the effectiveness of radar signature reduction techniques

Sara Axelrod currently leads sustainability initiatives in North and Central America for Ball Packaging, where she is focused on creating and promoting a commercial and regulatory environment in which the company can support its customers’ sustainability goals, drive efforts around real recycling and the circular economy at scale, and ultimately utilize its market position to create systemic change to improve the recycling system. She previously led marketing and innovation for the sustainability team at Land O’Lakes Inc. and was a founding member of the Food & Agriculture team at the Glover Park Group, a leading public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. She holds an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University.

Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla is an internationally renowned electrical and computer engineer recognized for his seminal contributions in secure software, intelligent robot systems, and design. As UC San Diego’s chief executive officer, Khosla provides vision and strategy, leading a campus of more than 40,000 students within seven undergraduate colleges and 12 academic divisions and graduate schools; the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and the region’s only academic medical center, UC San Diego Health.

Khosla has positioned UC San Diego to define the future of the public research university by activating the institution’s first-ever Strategic Plan and launching the Campaign for UC San Diego, an ambitious 10-year, $2 billion endeavor aimed at transforming the university physically, intellectually and culturally. $2.6 billion has been raised in nine years. The campus is currently undergoing a $2 billion-construction boom to expand classroom and research space and double the number of on-campus housing units.

Under Chancellor Khosla’s leadership, UC San Diego has expanded college access and affordability for underserved students, initiated campus-wide interdisciplinary research initiatives to foster collaboration and solve societal challenges, created bench-to-bedside patient care, and strengthened research and community partnerships to drive regional impact.”

Official Bio

Marilyn Smith is a Professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is director of Georgia Tech’s Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE), where she leads a seven-university team of experts in vertical lift research for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and NASA. She has partnered with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) to successfully win multiple research funding mechanisms for both organizations that total more than $200 million dollars. As the director of the AE School’s Computational Nonlinear Computational Aeroelasticity Lab, Prof. Smith leads an internationally recognized and award-winning research team in the areas of unsteady aerodynamics and computational aeroelasticity using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) across rotary-wing, fixed wing and launch vehicles, as well as sustainable energy. As a member of the NASA FUN3D development team, Prof. Smith contributes to state-of-the-art unstructured algorithm development, in particular for overset, moving frames. As an affiliate of the Aerospace Systems Design Lab (ASDL), she helps to integrate high performance computing with the design process. Prof. Smith is the author or co-author of more than 200 technical publications, and her research products are in active use by the US Government and other organizations, including the Drone Racing League. She is active internationally on three NATO AVT Panels investigating nonlinear gusts behaviors on UAVs and collaboration of experimental/computational aerodynamics. She is on Board of Directors of the Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC) and the Vertical Flight Society (VFS). She is also the Deputy Technical Director for Aeromechanics for the VFS. Prof. Smith has demonstrated her leadership as ARO Dynamic Stall Workshop Chair (2019); 70th AHS Annual Forum Technical Chairperson (2014); 69th AHS Annual Forum Technical Deputy Chairperson (2013); and 2014 Overset Grid Symposium (OGS) Chairperson. She was a member on the first International Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop Organizing Committee and is a member of the OGS organizing committee. Prof. Smith has been a guest expert in aviation for National Geographic, PBS, and NPR, as well as local television and numerous publications.

Honors:
Prof. Smith is an AIAA Fellow and a Technical Fellow of the American Helicopter Society, and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She has won numerous honors for her research, mentoring and service, including two Best Paper Awards at the 2015 AHS Forum; 2014 and 2012 AHS Agusta-Westland International Fellowship Awards; 2007 NASA Group Achievement Award; 2009 AHS Membership Award; 2006 GIT Women in Engineering Faculty Mentoring Excellence Award; 2004 GIT Women in Engineering Outstanding Faculty Member Award; 1999 GIT Women’s Leadership Conference Outstanding Faculty Member Award; and 70th AHS Annual Forum Technical Chairperson.

Lab/Collaborations:
Nonlinear Computational Aeroelasticity Laboratory
Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE)
Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL)
Disciplines:
Aeroelasticity & Structural Dynamics
Aerodynamics & Fluid Mechanics
AE Multidisciplinary Research Areas:
Vertical Lift and Urban Air Mobility

“I am honored and humbled to be serving as Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, which is truly a world-class institution. Together, we are taking the Jacobs School of Engineering to the next level, in terms of research, education and positive impact on society.”

– Albert P. Pisano

On Sept. 1, 2013, Pisano joined the Jacobs School of as Professor and Dean. He holds the Walter J. Zable Chair in Engineering.

Pisano is a highly accomplished mechanical engineer who, in 2001, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the design, fabrication, commercialization, and educational aspects of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

A self-described technology polymath, Pisano’s research is driven by his passion for developing, mastering and advancing technologies in order to solve problems.

At UC San Diego, Pisano holds faculty appointments in the departments of mechanical and aerospace engineering and electrical and computer engineering.