Vikram Shyam (Vik) has a background and interest in aeropropulsion, biomimicry, innovation methods and futurology. He received his PhD from the Ohio State University in 2009 and works as a futurist for the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for NASA. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Akron in the Mechanical Engineering department. He is the founder of the Virtual Interchange for Nature-Inspired Exploration (V.I.N.E.) at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Vik is the recipient of such awards as Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), NASA’s Early Career Achievement Medal, NASA Group Achievement Award, and the ASEI Young Engineer Award.
People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2022
Kirk Shireman
Bio coming soon.
James Gregory
Dr. Jim Gregory is Dean of the College of Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach campus, which is home of the largest Aerospace Engineering program in the US. He received his doctorate and masters degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University in 2005 and 2002, respectively, and his Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1999, graduating with highest honors. Prior to joining Embry-Riddle, he was a faculty member at The Ohio State University (2008-2021), most recently serving as Chair of OSU’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Gregory is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Lynne Hopper
Lynne Hopper was named vice president and general manager of Engineering Strategy & Operations in August 2021. In this role, she has responsibility for functional excellence and integration across the company’s engineering team and is deputy to Greg Hyslop, Boeing Chief Engineer and Executive Vice President of Boeing Engineering, Test & Technology. She leads the Functional Chief Engineers Office, strategic workforce planning, talent management across all the business units, and enduring projects such as design practices and processes, as well as the deployment of model-based engineering.
Most recently, Lynne served as vice president of Engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. She was responsible for effectiveness and efficiency of the engineering function across Commercial Airplanes and for engineering design, producibility, delegated compliance, safety, and customer support activities for all commercial airplane models. She identified and implemented best practices and ensured the right engineering skill sets, processes and tools were in place for designing, integrating, building, testing, certifying, delivering and supporting Boeing airplane products.
She also served as a member of the Boeing enterprise Engineering leadership team, overseeing export compliance and intellectual property activities in Commercial Airplanes.
Previously, Hopper was the vice president of Boeing Test & Evaluation, where she was responsible for laboratory and flight test operations, in support of validation and certification of Boeing commercial and defense products. Named to that position in 2018, Hopper oversaw 5,000 engineers, pilots, mechanics and technicians, who test and evaluate new Boeing aircraft, modifications and upgrades to existing aircraft, and who provide test support to Boeing businesses.
Prior to that position, Hopper served as vice president of Engineering, Modifications & Maintenance for Boeing Global Services where she was responsible for fleet engineering services, modifications to aircraft, logistics products and support, Aircraft-on-Ground (AOG) services, forward base deployment with operators around the world, and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facilities in San Antonio, Cecil Field and Shanghai.
Hopper also served as vice president of Material Services for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where she was responsible for commercial aviation’s most comprehensive aircraft spare-parts sales, services and distribution network, serving customers worldwide. Concurrently, she led Commercial Aviation Services’ data analytics team.
Hopper also previously served as vice president of Commercial Airplanes Customer Support, where she managed the health of the world’s largest fleet of commercial jetliners – more than 13,000 airplanes. She oversaw a complete set of Boeing technical resources, helping more than 800 operators maintain their fleets throughout the life cycle of their airplanes.
Hopper led the development of regulatory-delegated authorized representatives for Commercial Airplanes from 2004 to 2007 and has held leadership positions in 737, 747 and 757 Airplane Systems, and in Airplane Safety and Airworthiness.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford
The Honorable Steven J. Isakowitz
The Honorable Steven J. Isakowitz is president and chief executive officer of The Aerospace Corporation, a leading architect for the nation’s national security and civil space programs. The Aerospace Corporation has more than 4,000 employees and annual revenues of $1.1 billion. He assumed this position on October 1, 2016.
As a recognized leader across the government, private, space, and technology sectors, Isakowitz has served in prominent roles at Virgin, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Isakowitz serves on various advisory boards at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California State University Long Beach, and has served on the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. He also co-authored the AIAA’s International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems, which received the Summerfield Book Award in 2003.
During his tenure at Virgin, Isakowitz served as chief technology officer and later as president of the firm’s space ventures business, which included such responsibilities as the development of privately funded launch systems, advanced technologies, and other new space applications.
Prior to Virgin, Isakowitz served as chief financial officer of the U.S. Department of Energy, where he supported basic scientific research and advanced energy technologies in the national security and civil sectors, while managing a budget of nearly $30 billion.
Previously, he served as deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA, where he helped guide the development of advanced technologies and promoted innovative approaches in the areas of space transportation and government-industry partnerships.
Prior to his NASA work, Isakowitz served as science and space programs branch chief at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he oversaw $50 billion in federal science and technology programs, which included NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation.
EDUCATION
Isakowitz earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
AWARDS AND HONORS
In recognition of his achievements, Isakowitz has received numerous awards and citations, among them NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award.
Tom Prevot
Dr. Thomas (Tom) Prevot is the Air Taxi Product Lead at Joby Aviation. He and his team are developing the air taxi service for the future Joby network of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Tom joined Joby in January 2021, after having served as the Director of Engineering for Airspace Systems at Uber Elevate since 2017. Prior to joining Uber, Tom was with NASA Ames Research Center for more than 20 years. Tom is passionate about developing and evaluating future concepts and technologies for the air transportation system. He has published over 100 conference and journal papers. He earned his doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Munich University of the German Armed Forces in 1995.
Wendy Okolo
Dr. Wendy A. Okolo is the Associate Project Manager for NASA’s System-Wide Safety project, focused on the development of new research tools, innovative aerospace technologies, and re-defined operational methods that will enable the safe operations of unmanned vehicles in the national airspace. As an aerospace controls research engineer, her expertise is in unconventional controls system design and optimization for air and space vehicles.
Her research experiences include stints at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Advanced Development Programs of Lockheed Martin (Skunkworks), working on multi-aircraft formation flight and performance optimizing flight control for the Joint Strike Fighter F-35C aircraft, respectively.
At 26 years old, Dr. Okolo became the first black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is the recipient of the 2020 NASA Ames Award for Researcher and the 2019 NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award. She also received the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Most Promising Engineer in U.S. Government, the 2019 Women In Aerospace Award for Initiative, Inspiration & Impact, and the 2019 U.T. Arlington Distinguished Recent Graduate Award.
Óscar Rodríguez
Oscar Rodríguez Yanez, Computer Systems Engineer, graduated with honors from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, and with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Universidad Iberoamericana.
Executive Leader with more than 20 years of international experience in aeronautical operations, software development methodologies and business process improvement.
Passionate about serving as key player working collaboratively with cross-functional and diverse cultural teams to deliver tangible and differentiated business values to his customers.
He is the currently the President of the Bajio Aerospace Cluster in Guanajuato Mexico and CEO of Optimen. High tech company dedicated to the development of software for the optimization of resources in logistics problems, mainly in the Aerospace Sector, using Artificial Intelligence heuristics and mathematical optimization.
Passionate about innovation and new technologies, he has been developing business partnerships and joint ventures in high impact projects related to Industry 4.0 within the field of additive manufacturing and composite materials, robotics, design, development and manufacturing of aircrafts, among others.
In addition, he is actively supporting Startups with high technological impact through crowdfunding and groups of angel investors.
Steven N. Rader
Steve Rader currently serves as the Manager of NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), which is working to infuse challenge and crowdsourcing innovation approaches at NASA and across the federal government. CoECI focuses on the study and use of curated, crowd-sourcing communities that utilize prize and challenge-based methods to deliver innovative solutions for NASA and the US government.
Mr. Rader has Mechanical Engineering degree from Rice University and has worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX for 25 years. He started his career as an environmental control and life support systems flight controller for Space Station Operations. Mr. Rader moved into flight software engineering where he developed delay tolerant communications software for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station as well as ground and flight command & control systems for the X-38 emergency crew return vehicle. Mr. Rader led the development of NASA’s Constellation Program’s interoperable Command, Control, Communications & Information (C3I) architecture. After the Constellation program, Mr. Rader supported the Mars design reference mission definition and a number of analog missions studying space mission operations and design. Mr. Rader began studying crowdsourcing communities in 2011 and joined the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation as the deputy director in 2013.
Samantha (Sam) Magill
Bio coming soon.