People Category: Speaker

Fassi Kafyeke

Fassi Kafyeke has an Aerospace Engineering Master’s degree from Université de Liège (Belgium), a Master’s degree (Air Transport Engineering) from the Cranfield Institute of Technology (U.K.) and a Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering, Aerodynamics) from École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada).

Fassi Kafyeke joined Bombardier in 1982 and has had a long professional career, including 25 years in aerodynamics. For 15 years he has been Chief of Advanced Aerodynamics, responsible for the aerodynamic design of Challenger 300 and Global 6000 business jets, CRJ 700, 900 and 1000 regional jets and the Cseries single-aisle aircraft CS100 and CS300, now Airbus A220. Since 2007, he became Director, then Senior Director, responsible for the development of the strategic technologies that can be found on Bombardier aircraft (fly-by-wire, composite wing, new generation aerodynamics, etc). In 2020, he became Fellow Research, Innovation and Collaborations for Bombardier Aviation. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and has been active on many consortium boards, such as CRIAQ, GARDN, SA2GE and AERO 21. He is currently on assignment at Aero Montréal to lead efforts to set up the ZIAQ, the Montreal Aerospace Innovation Zone.

Dr Kafyeke received in 2001 the Grand Prix d’Excellence de l’Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) and in 2009 the Prix Innovation of École Polytechnique de Montreal. In 2003, he served as President of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI).  He is a co-author of the book « Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers » and of several papers and lecture notes in Aerodynamics.

 

Axel Krein

Axel Krein is the Executive Director of the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, a Public-Private Partnership and the European Union’s leading Research and Innovation programme for steering aviation towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future. The aim is to develop and demonstrate disruptive new technologies and aircraft concepts aimed at reducing both CO2 and non-CO2 aircraft emissions.

Axel has been at the helm of Clean Aviation and its predecessor Clean Sky 2 since February 2019. Previously, he spent more than two decades with Airbus in various executive management positions, including Senior Vice President of Cyber Security Programme (2014-2019); Senior Vice President Research & Technology (2007 -2014); Senior Vice President Strategic Development (2004-2007); and

Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer (2000-2004). Axel holds a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.

Official Bio 

Leia Spaniak

Leia Spaniak is a first-year student majoring in aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Her team’s experiment launched on NG-12 and was tested on the International Space Station in 2019.

Carlos Castro

 

Carlos Castro is a PMI-certified project manager and is the senior consultant and product owner responsible for the preliminary design and evaluation tools Pacelab APD, SysArc, and Mission Suite at PACE Aerospace & IT.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen, Germany, and received his master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering at the Institute of Technology in Berlin, Germany.

Carlos is also a member of the AIAA.

Trinity Watkins

Girls Take Flight Alumna: Trinity Watkins

Trinity Watkins, senior at Morse High School. I plan to attend a university after high school and obtain a job/internship at a bio-technology company. My current interests and hobbies are Coding with Python, Art and being a Drone Pilot. My Extracurriculars are Club Competitive Cheerleading. My plans for college is to attend UCSD or UCSB and major in Biology. My aspirations in life is to obtain a Medical Degree and become a Psychiatrist and eventually own my own practice.

Shyanne Smith

Girls Take Flight Alumna: Shyanne Smith

My name is Shyanne Smith and I am a senior at Health Sciences High and Middle College. I plan on going to UCSD after high school where I will major in Journalism. I will then go on and attend Howard University for my masters degree. I am very interested in literature and creative writing. I also enjoy public speaking, whether it’s giving speeches, debates or presentations I enjoy speaking to others in a public setting. I am currently apart of my school’s ASB club, yearbook club, and the basketball manager for the girl’s basketball team. Outside of school I often do missionary work with Shadow Mountain Community Church. My hobbies include traveling, hanging out with friends and writing.

Claire Pickerel

Claire Pickerel has been involved with Higher Orbits for four years now. In her time, she has developed three Go For Launch! experiments – two of which entered the final round of judging. She, also, attended the International Science School in 2019 along side four other Higher Orbits students. She is now studying Geology at Colorado State University with the intention of perusing a career in planetary geology with the hope of being an astronaut.