Alumni

PhD Alumni

Dr. Logan Halstrom

Logan is a PhD Candidate researching CFD simulation of the unstable pendulum motion of NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s main parachutes.

Dissertation

Dr. John Karasinski

Dr. John Karasinski is a researcher in the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames Research Center.

Dr. Guy Schauerhamer

Guy's research focused on simulating the lifespan of aircraft wake vortices to improve flight safety.

Dissertation

Masters Alumni

Daniela is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering with a research focus on Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) – an integral step on the way to sustainable deep space habitation.

Nat Blaesser

Nat's research investigated the initial concept and top level requirements for a space ambulance to return from ISS in the event of an injured crew member.

Alan Carey

Alan’s research at UC Davis focused on designing a passive mechanism to reduce astronaut hand fatigue while wearing space suits.

Sui Nam (Jason) Chan

Thesis

Zhixiang (Tony) Chao

Tony is researching the advanced UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) control, specializes in tilted frame UAV which is capable of VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) and transition to horizontal flight.

Kylie Cooper

Kylie's research focuses on using hard disk drives as low-cost CubeSat reaction wheels and testing them in zero gravity flight.

Eric Daoud-Attoyan

Eric's research focused on prototyping software and hardware tools to approximate the drag of an object in a wind tunnel, using a Pitot Tube an Arduino micro controller and Python programming language.

Josh Day

Cory George

Cory is an MS student supporting the HOME STRI.

Etan Halberg

Thesis

Patrick Handley

Thesis

Hashmatullah Haseeb

Hash's research focused on the system-level design of the X-37B-based Space Ambulance concept.

Abhinav Kamath

Abhi is developing an integrated modeling and simulation framework for autonomous precision lunar landing guidance and control.

Shannon Lackey

Shannon is currently pursing a M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis with a focus on Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS).

Samuel Morice

Thesis

Abhay Negi

Abhay researches using hard disk drives as low-cost CubeSat reaction wheels and testing them in zero gravity flight.

James Thompson

Monica Torralba

Monica works on modeling and simulating Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) to enable automated prognostics and feedback control for future habitats.

Undergraduate Alumni

Gladys Abapo

Xiao-Bao Bao

Xiao supports the development of computer vision and machine learning models for the Inspection CubeSat.

Dan Berman

Russ Bryan

Savannah Buchner

Savannah's research focused on customizable procedures for long duration astronaut training.

Lauren Campbell

Lauren’s undergraduate work was in manufacturing the precision airfoil for Sam Morice’s master’s project in viscous flow control for stall management using intelligent vortex generators

Yi-Hsuan Cheng

Yi-Hsuan serves as a machine learning specialist and optimizes the performance of object detection and pose estimation algorithm for Inspection CubeSat project.

Christopher Chighizola

Ashley Coates

As an undergrad, Ashley was one of the first members of the HRVIP lab and worked on several projects including reverse engineering a robotic arm.

Cordell Cohoon

Cordell's research is in support of the two-fault tolerant propulsion system for the Inspection CubeSat project.

Max Danilevsky

Max participated in various inter-departmental projects that included a portable heated bird perch for research use in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, designing active vortex generators to reduce boundary layer separation using acoustic flow sensing, and applied various tufting techniques (including material selection, application methods, and imaging techniques) as an absolute measurement of boundary layer separation.

Daniela L. Davalos

Danny is a first-generation college student who recently graduated from UC Davis in 2023 with a B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Her passion for aerospace engineering was sparked during her internship at the Los Angeles International Airport while she was attending Santa Monica College. Her journey in aerospace engineering research began as a WAVE Fellow at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), where she worked on simulations of an underwater robot and turbulence flows. Upon transferring from community college to UC Davis, Danny joined the HRVIP lab, where she contributed to the Inspection Sat team by designing a deployment mechanism for a cubesat computer vision testbed. She then spent a summer developing helmet-mounted display (HMD) technology for astronauts to use during underwater training in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Danny will now be starting her graduate studies at MIT in the AeroAstro department in the Fall of 2023. She will be joining the Aerospace Physiology Lab, where her focus will be on Bioastronautics. To learn a little more about Danny, read Engineering Her Future - an article written about Danny by her former institution, Santa Monica College.

Nathan Davis

Nathan worked on flow visualization techniques for vortex generators in the 12 inch low speed wind tunnel.

Venkata Devalaraju

Maxwell Drolet

Logan Dunn

Logan is an undergraduate student majoring in Aerospace Engineering and developing computer vision and machine learning models for the Inspection CubeSat.

Louis Edelman

Robert Edwards

Natasha H Evans

Natasha is an undergraduate student working on the NASA JSC HDD CubeSat and Zero-G HDD project.

Nelson Flores

Bryce Fong

Miranda Godinez

Miranda works on developing a deployment mechanism for a computer vision testbed for the Inspection CubeSat.

Samuel Gonzalez

Samuel specializes in CAD and structural analysis and is currently working on developing a model for a space habitat mockup.

Sonia Gonzalez

Zane Hays

Adriana Henriquez

Ruby Houchens

Ruby is an undergraduate researcher working on the CHANGES project to develop wearable countermeasure to space adaptation sickness.

Roberto Hurtado

Kimberly Jenks

Kimberly's research was concerned with long-duration astronaut training for critical and complex tasks.

Kaden Jeppesen

Brenna Joe

Holly Kim

Duncan Koelzer

Duncan is currently researching different options for an aerospace testbed to will be used to test our satellite equipment in a simulated zero-g environment.

Sara Langberg

Sara's research involved the early stages of the intelligent vortex generator project.

Keyur Makwana

Keyur's research in HRVIP was on vortex generator and flow control.

Russel Manalo

Bruno Matsui

Bruno's research focused on the effectiveness of in-air sampling techniques for measuring chemical volatiles.

Billy Mazotti

Billy is a 4th year undergraduate MAE student interested in deep space exploration with an emphasis in astronautic and mechatronic technologies.

Christine Montano

Maureen Murphy

Andrew Neish

As an undergrad, Andrew helped to found the Space and Satellite Systems club and did some preliminary work on inspection spacecraft.

Dzuy Nguyen

Dzuy is an undergraduate student working on the NASA JSC HDD CubeSat and Zero-G HDD project by supporting the development of CubeSat designs.

Rina Onishi

Rina spent her undergraduate supporting conceptual design of an ISS space ambulance and viscous flow control using vortex generators.

Alejandro Pensado

Tanisha Potnis

Tanisha supported the Long Duration Astronaut Training (LDAT) pursuit by developing and performing human systems integration experiments.

Eddie Protassov

Eddie works on developing a mechanism and conducting analysis for the Inspection CubeSat.

Brooke Raabe

Shuban Ranganath

Shuban currently supports the development of the flight software for the Inspection CubeSat.

Ashna Reddy

Ashna is working on haptics feedback for manual robotic control as part of the Morpheus project.

Nathan Ross

Christopher Stevens

Alex Tatro

Daniel Torrecampo

Anna Valcarcel

Anna is a member of Chris Lorenzen’s satellite development team, working on a water-sublimation approach to active cooling for CubeSats

Preston Vanderpan

Preston is a 4th year undergraduate MAE student working on development of a wearable countermeasure to space adaptation sickness as part of the CHANGES project.

Donald Wang

Donald was one of the founding members and first President of the Space and Satellite Systems club and also helped with research on the inspection cube satellite.