James Graf

Director, Earth Science and Technology Directorate, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Director for Earth Science and Technology Directorate at JPL. Formerly, Manager of JPL's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and the Quick Scatterometer Mission, an Earth-orbiting satellite. Recipient of NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal and Aviation Week's 1999 'Laurel for Space.' BSE, Princeton University; MS, Colorado State University.

Keyur Patel

Associate Director for Flight Projects and Mission Success, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab: Keyur Patel is currently the Director for Astronomy and Physics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and represents the Directorate as a member of JPL’s Executive Council. He is responsible for all aspects of research, technology, development and operations, program planning, formulation and development, and execution of the Directorate’s missions. He has held positions as the Deputy Director for Planetary Science, Director for the Interplanetary Directorate, Deputy Director for Office of Safety and Mission Success. As Project Manager for Dawn, he shepherded the mission through its launch to orbit and study the protoplanets Vesta and Ceres. He served as Deputy Project Manager and Chief Engineer for the Deep Impact mission, helping to ensure the spacecraft’s successful encounter with comet Tempel 1.

Alex Austin

Systems Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Alex Austin is a Systems Engineer in the Advanced Design Engineering group at JPL. He is the Flight System Systems Engineer for the INCUS mission, as well as the Lead Engineer for Team Xc, JPL’s formulation team for CubeSat and SmallSat missions. He received a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering and a master’s in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Ian Clark

Systems Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ian is a systems engineer in the EDL and Advanced Technologies Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He currently serves as the Mars Ascent Phase Lead for the Mars Sample Return Mission. He has previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and PI of NASA's LDSD and ASPIRE projects.

Richard Volpe

Directorate Technologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Richard Volpe is the Chief Technologist of the Engineering and Science Directorate. The directorate is home to the large majority of engineers and scientists at JPL. The technology community of this directorate develops new capabilities in response to mission needs and science objectives for investigation of the earth, the sun, the planets, and the cosmos.

Paul Backes

Group Supervisor, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Paul Backes, Ph.D. is the Group Supervisor of the Robotic Manipulation and Sampling group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has worked since 1987. He received the BSME degree at U.C. Berkeley in 1982 and Ph.D. in ME from Purdue University in 1987. His awards include NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal (1993), JPL Award for Excellence (1998), NASA Software of the Year Award (2004), IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award (2008), NASA Exceptional Service Award (2014), and Purdue University Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Alumni Award (2021).

Elena Adams

Systems Engineer, Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory: Elena Adams is a Principal Staff at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. She received a B.S. from University of Virginia; an M.S. and Ph.D., and an M.E. from the University of Michigan. Since joining APL in 2008, she worked on Van Allen Probes, ExoMars MOMA, Europa Clipper, Parker Solar Probe, and most recently led the DART team as a Mission and Spacecraft Systems Engineer. She is currently the Dragonfly Lander Systems Engineer. She has worked with NOAA and Planetary Defense Coordination Office on a number of studies for future mission architectures and survey approaches, and on a variety of instrument and spacecraft technologies. She won NASA grants for developing technology for future space exploration, including a hopping lander to explore asteroids and a sampling system for collecting water from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. She participates on multiple flight project standing review boards.

Xiang Li

Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Xiang Li received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University in 2009. He is a mass spectrometry scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on the detection of trace element and astrobiologically relevant organic molecules in planetary systems, such as Mars, Europa and Titan. He is especially interested in the instrument development of time-of-flight and ion trap mass spectrometers with various ionization and ion gating techniques.

Jacob Graham

Research Space Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Jacob Graham is a Research Space Scientist in the Planetary Environments Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. As an instrumentalist his research interests broadly includes mass spectrometry, ionization processes, laser desorption and molecule-surface interactions.

Giovanni Palmerini

Professor, Guidance and Navigation, Sapienza Universita' di Roma: Full professor of Aerospace Systems at Sapienza Univ. of Rome, has been working after graduation in 1991 as aeronautical engineer for Italspazio, then back to university (PhD in 1996), visiting scholar at Stanford, later - as researcher at Sapienza - participant in design, test and launch (2000) of UNISAT, first Italian university microsatellite. Currently co-leader of the Guidance and Navigation Lab, working on testbeds for proximity space ops. Research interests in orbital dynamics, space systems, satellite/inertial/integrated navigation. PhD Aerosp.Eng., Univ.Rome (1996). Senior Member AIAA, Member IEEE, ION and AIdAA. Corresponding Member (2016) and lifetime Member (2020) of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Leonard Felicetti

Senior Lecturer in Space Robotics and GNC, Cranfield University: Dr. Leonard Felicetti is a Senior Lecturer in Space Robotics and GNC at Cranfield University (UK). He obtained his Ph.D. and he was a Post-Doc Researcher in Sapienza - University of Rome (Italy). In 2015, he was Honorary Research Associate at University of Glasgow (UK) and then, Associate Senior Lecturer in On-board Space Systems in Luleå University of Technology (Sweden). He joined Cranfield University (UK) in 2019. Leonard's main research interests are on Guidance, Navigation and Control of Space Systems; Spacecraft Orbital and Attitude Control; Spacecraft Formation Flying; Space Robotics; Autonomous Distributed Space Systems; Spacecraft and Mission Design.

Lembit Sihver

Professor Dr., TU Wien and NPI of the CAS: Dr. Sihver is the Co-founder and CTO for Cosmic Shielding Corporation (CSC), GA, USA. He as around 35 years experience of teaching, and international R&D in space radiation protection, dosimetry, medical radiation physics, nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, material science and nuclear engineering. He has been the principle investigator for simulations and analyses for many experiments at the International Space Station (ISS) in close collaboration with NASA, EU, ESA, JAXA and Roscosmos. Dr. Sihver is an adjunct Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, University of Houston, Roanoke College, East Carolina University, and Texas A&M University, USA, the Royal Military College of Canada, Canada, TU Wien, Austria, Sunway University, Malaysia, and at the Medical College of Soochow University, China. Dr. Sihver is an editor and co-editor for many international recognized scientific journals. He is also an official peer reviewer for many international research funding organizations, as well as for more than 40 different international scientific journals. Dr. Sihver has authored and published around 400 scientific and technical articles and abstracts in peer-reviewed international journals, books, and international conference proceedings. He has presented his work with more than 400 oral and poster presentations.

James Kinnison

Mission System Engineer, JHU-APL: Jim Kinnison develops mission concepts for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He has served as the Mission System Engineer for Parker Solar Probe since the mission concept study began in 2007, and has led the development of more than a dozen concepts, such as Interstellar Probe. He received a B.S. in Physics from Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, Louisiana in 1984, an M.S. in Physics from Michigan State University, and a PhD in Physics from Clemson University in 2005. He has been with JHU/APL for more than 37 years, where he developed radiation models and worked systems mitigations for radiation effects in microelectronics for more than 10 spacecraft and several long-duration balloon flights. After serving as System Assurance Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto, he now focuses on system engineering for scientific space missions and advanced mission concept development.

Jeffery Webster

Senior Systems Engineer, retired, NASA / Caltech / Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Retired Senior Systems Engineer. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Project Support Lead-Project Support Office; Mission Systems Concepts Section-Mars Trace Gas Orbiter; Project Planner & Systems Engineering; Associate Engineer, Mission & Systems Concepts Section. Publications and awards available upon request.

Paul Chodas

Director, Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Dr. Paul Chodas is Director of the JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), NASA's center for computing the orbits of asteroids and comets and assessing their chances of impacting Earth. He designed and developed the original components of JPL’s small-body orbit determination and prediction processes, including core software that assesses impact probabilities. He used these tools in 1994 to successfully predict the times and locations of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter. He coined the term "keyhole" to describe a gravitational gateway that leads from an asteroid's Earth close approach to a later impact, and has assessed the chances of numerous asteroids passing through keyholes on their way to impact. Over the past decade, Dr. Chodas has developed and led several hypothetical asteroid impact exercises for use by the planetary defense community, and has analyzed the effectiveness of various techniques for asteroid impact mitigation, including ion-beam deflection.

David Sternberg

Guidance and Control Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: David Sternberg is a guidance and control systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, having earned his SB, SM, and ScD degrees in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is currently working on the development and testing of attitude determination and control systems for several satellites including the Psyche mission, as well as the creation of various spacecraft testbeds and simulations. His doctoral work in Space Systems Engineering focused on the development of optimal trajectories for docking to tumbling targets with uncertain properties.

James Hoffman

Vice President of Engineering, Kinemetrics: Quite possibly the only person on LinkedIn who isn’t a “results-orientated team player with excellent interpersonal skills.”

James Hoffman

Vice President of Engineering, Kinemetrics: Quite possibly the only person on LinkedIn who isn’t a “results-orientated team player with excellent interpersonal skills.”

Mark Bentum

Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology: Mark Bentum received his MSc and PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, in 1991 and 1995. In 1996 he joined the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON). He was in various positions at ASTRON. In 2005 he was involved in the eSMA project in Hawaii to correlate the Dutch JCMT mm-telescope with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) of Harvard University. From 2005 to 2008 he was responsible for the construction of the first software radio telescope in the world, LOFAR (Low Frequency Array). In 2008 he became an Associate Professor in the Telecommunication Engineering Group at the University of Twente. In 2017 he became a full Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He is now involved with research and education in radio science. Since 2023 he is the Dean of the Electrical Engineering faculty at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Young Lee

Technical Group Supervisor and Project Support Lead, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ms. Young Lee is the Advanced Design Engineering Technical Group Supervisor and Project Support Lead in the Project Systems Engineering and Formulation Section in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a member of the NASA’s Small Satellite Coordination Group (SSCG), representing JPL. Over the last 15 years, she has held many diverse leadership positions in NASA programs and projects establishing strategic and collaborative working relationships across many organizations within NASA, including its domestic and international partners. In addition, she has over twenty years of experience in the development and deployment of operations systems for deep space missions, focusing on operations cost reduction, user-productivity improvements and increased information throughput to support many NASA deep space missions. She has M.S. in Management of Information Systems from Claremont Graduate University in California.

Benjamin Donitz

Systems Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Benjamin Donitz received his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Aerospace and Space Engineering, respectively, from The University of Michigan. He now works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Project System Engineering and Formulation section where he is involved with the development of early-phase mission concepts. Since joining JPL in 2019, Benjamin has worked on several mission concepts and studies evaluating the feasibility of sending dedicated spacecraft to interstellar objects and long period comets. Benjamin now supports the Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS), a NASA Earth Science mission, on the Project Systems Engineer team.

Young Lee

Technical Group Supervisor and Project Support Lead, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ms. Young Lee is the Advanced Design Engineering Technical Group Supervisor and Project Support Lead in the Project Systems Engineering and Formulation Section in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a member of the NASA’s Small Satellite Coordination Group (SSCG), representing JPL. Over the last 15 years, she has held many diverse leadership positions in NASA programs and projects establishing strategic and collaborative working relationships across many organizations within NASA, including its domestic and international partners. In addition, she has over twenty years of experience in the development and deployment of operations systems for deep space missions, focusing on operations cost reduction, user-productivity improvements and increased information throughput to support many NASA deep space missions. She has M.S. in Management of Information Systems from Claremont Graduate University in California.

Ryan Woolley

Mission Design Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ryan Woolley is a mission design engineer in the Inner Planet Mission Analysis group at JPL. His focus has primarily been on early mission formulation for the Mars Exploration Program. This includes mission concept studies, systems engineering, propulsion systems, low-thrust trajectories and optimization, mission design tools, and launch vehicle performance. He has worked on nearly all aspects of the Mars Sample Return campaign and has recently begun focusing on small missions to Mars. He received a B.S. in Physics-Astronomy from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado. He has been at JPL since 2005.

Ashwati Das-Stuart

Navigation Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab: Dr. Ashwati Das-Stuart is a member of the Mission Design and Navigation Section at JPL working on both the NISAR and Europa Clipper missions. She is also the lead Systems Engineer for the United States Greenhouse Gas Center project. Her experience includes systems engineering, software architecting and automation, as well as mission design and navigation. She has also gained a wide array of insights from working in early formulation concept studies to operations. Prior to JPL, she graduated with a Ph.D. focused on artificial intelligence-aided trajectory design in multi-body systems from Purdue University. She loves engaging in outreach efforts to inspire the next generation to join the space journey.

Michael Swartwout

Professor, Saint Louis University: Michael Swartwout is a professor of aerospace engineering at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on systems and models for improving mission assurance for small spacecraft. He earned his BS and MS in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, and his PhD in aeronautics & astronautics from Stanford. While at Stanford, he was the manager of the Sapphire satellite, launched in 2001. At SLU, his students have several CubeSats in development for NASA-sponsored launches: COPPER (2013), Argus (2015), Argus-2 (2019), DARLA (2025), DARLA-02 (2026)

Bruce Yost

Director, S3VI, NASA - Ames Research Center: Bruce Yost is currently the NASA Director of the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), funded by the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). Prior to that, he was the Program Manager for the Small Spacecraft Technology Program within the STMD. He began his aerospace career working on the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center, and also worked at NASA HQs prior to moving to Ames Research Center. Bruce has worked on a number of Shuttle, ISS, and more recently, smallsat missions and programs for over 30 years.

Michael Swartwout

Professor, Saint Louis University: Michael Swartwout is a professor of aerospace engineering at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on systems and models for improving mission assurance for small spacecraft. He earned his BS and MS in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, and his PhD in aeronautics & astronautics from Stanford. While at Stanford, he was the manager of the Sapphire satellite, launched in 2001. At SLU, his students have several CubeSats in development for NASA-sponsored launches: COPPER (2013), Argus (2015), Argus-2 (2019), DARLA (2025), DARLA-02 (2026)

Michael O'Connor

, United States Space Force: Michael O'Connor's professional experience ranges from space systems to aircraft flight test. His previous research has focused on the intersection of autonomy, commercial space, and national security. He currently supports the development of U.S. Government space systems.

Rashmi Shah

Technical Group Supervisor for Water and Ecosystems, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology: Interests include technology development, Small Satellites implementation, early concept developments, and science system engineering. Research expertise are in the area of microwave remote sensing, electromagnetic scattering, remote sensing using signals of opportunity reflectometry and microwave remote sensing instrument development.

John Dickinson

Manager, Research & Development, Radiation Effects & Mission Sciences, Sandia National Laboratories: Managing $45M research investment in radiation effects assessment for state-of-the-art digital microelectronics. Experience in spacecraft & payload systems engineering and avionics design & test on Kepler, WISE, JUNO, IBEX, RBSP, MMS, SPP, Solar Orbiter, CYGNSS, and multiple government programs. BSEE, Johns Hopkins University; MSEE, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dimitris Anagnostou

Associate Professor, Heriot Watt University: Dimitris E. Anagnostou received the BSEE degree from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, in 2000, and the MSEE and PhD from the University of New Mexico in 2002 and 2005, respectively. From 2005 to 2006, he was a Post-Doc at Georgia Tech. In 2007, he joined the ECE Department, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He is currently Associate Professor at Heriot Watt University, in Edinburgh, UK. His interests include reconfigurable antennas and arrays for space and wearable applications, RADAR, and wireless vital sign monitoring. Dr. Anagnostou is a recipient of the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the IEEE John Kraus Antenna Award, and is currently supported by the H2020 Marie Curie Individual Fellowship. He is past Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

Kara O'Donnell

General Manager, Aerospace Corporation: General Manager for the Imagery Programs Division at the Aerospace Corporation, providing world class technical support in the areas of adaptive mission assurance, technology planning, development, and test & demonstration.

Jamal Haque

Chief Satellite Architect/ LM Fellow, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company: Dr. Haque is a Chief Satellite Architect and LM Fellow at Lockheed Space Communications, where he leads the various solutions for satellite applications. Dr. Haque's experiences and interests are LOS, BLOS, and NLOS communication systems across terrestrial and non- terrestrial applications, i.e., satellites, 5G/6G etc. In particular he has focused on waveforms for highspeed mobile platforms, channel estimation, cognitive software defined radio, signal processing, channel coding, high-speed connectivity, channelizer and robust space processing systems and architectures. He has worked at advance development groups at AT&T ( Bell Labs), Rockwell, Lucent (Bell Labs) technology, Honeywell and Raytheon Space. He brings wealth of knowledge in research, system design, system engineering, program management, leadership and Product leadership. As a Sr Manager Product Leader he was responsible for P&L, and also led M&A . As Tech. Director at RTX, he was responsible of all technology road maps, IR&D allocation and management of RTX business unit. His dissertation is focused on OFDM based system for aerial platforms. He has 16 publications and has been awarded 33 US patents.

Patrick Phelan

Sr. Manager - R&D, Southwest Research Institute: Patrick T. Phelan is a Sr. Manager at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, TX, USA in the Space Systems Division. He received a B.S. in Computer Engineering in 2005 and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2006, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been with SwRI for almost twenty years serving in a variety of roles with growing responsibility on space programs. Most recently, he is serving as a project manager for a DoD technology demonstration program as well as a pair of NASA programs.

Michael Epperly

Senior Program Manager, Southwest Research Institute: Senior Program Manager, Space Systems Department, Southwest Research Institute. Manager, Memory Subsystems product line and Program Manager for the Space Force APS-R Spacecraft. BSEE, University of Texas; MSEE, MSCS, and MS in Systems Engineering/Program Management, Johns-Hopkins University.

Eric Bradley

Computer Engineer, Naval Research Lab: Eric Bradley works as a program manager for the Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Eric has experience in the development of experimental space systems in technology areas ranging from propulsion to communications to remote sensing. He has led teams through all phases of the space system development lifecycle including requirements definition, design, implementation, test, launch, and on-orbit operations. Eric’s technical focus area is on all aspects of electrical system integration and testing from avionics to software to entire spacecraft.

Didier Keymeulen

Principal, Member Technical Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Principal, Member technical staff, JPL. Interests in design and implementation of adaptive and intelligent embedded flight systems

Leena Singh

Senior Staff, MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Leena Singh is a Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems engineer with experience in the autonomous GN&C of space, missile, and planetary reentry & landing bodies. She presently holds a Senior Technical Staff position in Control and Autonomous Systems Engineering at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. She has previously worked at Draper Laboratory holding various positions providing GN&C expertise in the area of single spacecraft operations, formation control of spacecraft clusters, and in the rendezvous and proximity operations of spacecraft approaching for docking. Leena Singh has been a member of the IEEE and the AIAA for over 20 years and is a Fellow of the AIAA.

Matthew Lashley

Senior Research Engineer, GTRI: Dr. Matthew Lashley is a Senior Research Engineer in the Air & Missile Defense Division (AMDD) of the Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory (SEAL) at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Auburn University in 2004, 2006, & 2009. His research background is in the area of vector tracking algorithms for GPS receivers and the deep integration of GPS and inertial measurement units. He joined GTRI in 2015 and has since worked in the areas of radar interferometry, target tracking, and GPS-denied navigation.

William Jackson

Senior Scientist, L3Harris Technologies: Senior Scientist, L3Harris Technologies. Spacecraft systems engineer for various small satellite programs. Expertise in systems engineering, mission analysis and operations, mathematical modeling and optimization, and spacecraft design. Senior member of IEEE, and Associate Fellow of AIAA.

Douglas Carssow

Electronics Engineer, Naval Research Laboratory: Dr. Douglas Carssow is the Naval Center for Space Technology Digital Flight Systems section head. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in 2010. He is a former Naval Research Laboratory Karle’s Fellow and has 18 years of space hardware experience. He is currently working on algorithms for on-orbit maritime situational awareness.

Will Goins

Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer, Radiance Technologies : Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer with Ierus Technologies in Huntsville AL, USA. Previously he held research and design positions with commercial companies supporting aerospace and defense customers. His research interests are in aerospace and electronic systems areas, with specific focus in autonomous vehicles and sensors. He holds a B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering

Richard Hoobler

Graduate Research Assistant, University of Texas at Austin: Richard Hoobler has a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master's degree from UT Austin. He is currently working on his PhD at UT Austin under Dr. Maruthi Akella. His research interests are in Aircraft GNC, Adaptive Control, and System Identification.

Will Goins

Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer, Radiance Technologies : Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer with Ierus Technologies in Huntsville AL, USA. Previously he held research and design positions with commercial companies supporting aerospace and defense customers. His research interests are in aerospace and electronic systems areas, with specific focus in autonomous vehicles and sensors. He holds a B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering

Kerianne Hobbs

Aerospace Engineer, Air Force Research Laboratory: Dr. Kerianne Hobbs is the Safe Autonomy and Space Lead on the Autonomy Capability Team (ACT3) at the Air Force Research Laboratory. There she investigates rigorous specification, analysis, bounding, and intervention techniques to enable safe, trusted, ethical, and certifiable autonomous and learning controllers for aircraft and spacecraft applications. Her previous experience includes work in automatic collision avoidance and autonomy verification and validation research. Dr. Hobbs was selected for the 2020 AFCEA 40 Under 40 award and was a member of the team that won the 2018 Collier Trophy (Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System Team), as well as numerous AFRL Awards. She serves on the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee, the NASA Formal Methods Program Committee, the IEEE Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology - IEEE Space Computing Conference Program Committee, and the IEEE Aerospace Conference Committee. Dr. Hobbs has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Andrew Lynch

Director, U.S. Marketing, Tactical Air Support Inc.: Mr. Lynch graduated with merit from the United States Naval Academy in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is a graduate and former Commanding Officer of the United States Naval Test Pilot School and led the Navy's Specialized and Proven Aircraft Program (PMA-226). He is currently the Director, U.S. Marketing at Tactical Air Support Inc.

Thomas Fraser

Engineer, Lockheed Martin Corp: Tom began his engineering career with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts: Lowell. He continued education with an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University. Tom currently works in the avionics hardware and software group for Lockheed Martin.

Christopher Elliott

Principal Research Engineer, CMElliott Applied Science LLC: Christopher M Elliott is a Principal Research Engineer at CMElliott Applied Science LLC, a company that provides innovative solutions for challenges in engineering research and production. With over 25 years of experience in the aerospace industry including roles as a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Technical Fellow in Flight Control and Vehicle Management Systems, Dr. Elliott has worked on a number of diverse research programs for the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, such as the International Space Station, Block 60 F16, F35 Joint Strike Fighter, and Hybrid Airship. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches and mentors students in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He holds a PhD and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from UT Arlington, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow and the Air Vehicle Chair for the annual IEEE Aerospace Conference and a passionate advocate for advancing the field of aerospace and mechanical engineering; guidance, navigation, and control; modeling, simulation, estimation, and optimization of dynamic systems; and quantum information science.

Richard Hoobler

Graduate Research Assistant, University of Texas at Austin: Richard Hoobler has a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master's degree from UT Austin. He is currently working on his PhD at UT Austin under Dr. Maruthi Akella. His research interests are in Aircraft GNC, Adaptive Control, and System Identification.

Virgil Adumitroaie

Data Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Past research in high-speed turbulent combustion modeling, data dimensionality reduction, neural networks, signaling pathways, decision support, climate data assimilation, and scientific software development. Currently working on planetary atmospheric and magnetospheric modeling. Adjunct Lecturer at the Viterbi School of Engineering, USC. Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University at Buffalo.

Ronnie Killough

Program Director - R&D, Southwest Research Institute: Ronnie Killough is a Program Director in the Space Science Division at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). In his 34 years at SwRI, Ronnie has developed software for cruise missile simulators, space shuttle control center systems, and unmanned spacecraft. Until 2014 he was Director of the Communications and Embedded Systems department in which he was responsible for oversight of research and development of network-centric systems, tactical communications systems, cyber security, and high-reliability software. Ronnie returned to his passion for space and served as software systems lead and flight director for the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission which launched in December 2016. He is currently Project Manager for a Heliophysics SMEX mission called Polarimeter to Unify the Corina and Heliosphere (PUNCH), a constellation of four microsatellites creating 3D images of the solar wind; PUNCH launched in March 2025.

Martin Stelzer

Research Associate, German Aerospace Center (DLR): Martin Stelzer studied computer science at FH Ingolstadt and the University of Hagen and received his M.Sc. Degree in 2012. Since 2007 he has been working at the German Aerospace Center in the field of onboard software frameworks and was involved in the space projects ROKVISS, Kontur-2, and EROSS.

Kristin Wortman

Principal Professional Staff, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory: Principal professional staff, Space Exploration Sector's Space Mission Assurance group at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory located in Laurel, MD. Support EZIE and Dragonfly NASA missions and several National Security Space missions as the lead software assurance engineer. Adjunct professor, Computer Sciences Department, University of Maryland University College since 2001. B.S., Computer and Information Science; M.S., Software Engineering, University of Maryland University College.

Aleksandra Markina Khusid

Department Manager, MITRE Corporation: Aleksandra Markina-Khusid received the B.S. degree in physics, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, and the M.S. degree in engineering and management, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2015 respectively. She leads the Systems and Mission Analysis Department, MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA, USA. Her research interests include analytical and quantitative systems engineering and mission engineering, including systems of systems engineering, trade space analysis, and decision support as enabled by the modern digital engineering approaches.

Daniel Clancy

Senior Research Engineer, Georgia Tech Research Institute: Dan has worked in the aerospace / defense industry for over 25 years. His research interests include machine learning and artificial intelligence; advance battle management, command and control systems; multi-agent decision and game theory; and information fusion, advanced tracking, data association, and target ID techniques. He previously worked for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, TX, where he was a lead designer of the information fusion system for the F-35 Lightning II. He has been an adjunct professor at Texas Christian University in the Department of Engineering. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1988, his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Boston University in 1991, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Ohio State University in 1997.

Georges Labrèche

Spacecraft Operations Engineer, Tanagra Space / European Space Agency: Georges Labrèche develops and operationalizes AI technology demonstrators on-board the European Space Agency's OPS-SAT Space Lab. His research focuses on leveraging edge computing for in-orbit machine learning and autonomous decision-making. He received his B.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada, M.A. in International Affairs from the New School University in New York, NY, and M.S. in Spacecraft Design from Luleå University of Technology in Kiruna, Sweden. He founded Tanagra Space, an Estonian-based AI consultancy that supports the OPS-SAT mission control team at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany. Georges lives in Queens, NY.

Janki Dodiya

Professor for Augmented/Virtual Reality and Human Computer Interaction, IU International University of Applied Science: Janki Dodiya is a Professor of Augmented/Virtual Reality and Human Computer Interaction at IU International University in Germany. She received her PhD in Computer Science in the topic of Virtual Environments in 2011, from University of Reading, UK. She thereafter continued her research at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) for 10 years for the Institute of Transportation Systems and Department of Software for Space Systems & Interactive Visualization, DLR, researching design and evaluation for space systems such as multimodal interaction techniques for a virtual reality simulation for on-orbit servicing (VROOS) and transportation systems such as interaction design for future autonomous vehicles. Her current research interest includes, human computer interaction/multimodal interaction, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and usability engineering including application areas such as Aerospace, Education, Psychology, Transportation, Humanitarian and Art.

Marco Sewtz

Scientific Staff, German Aerospace Center - DLR: Marco Sewtz is the lead for software and interfaces of the new lunar exploration rover at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He received his B.Eng. at the University of Applied Sciences of Munich and his M.Sc. at the Technical University of Munich. His interests focuses on SLAM and multi-modal perception of the environment. Before his current role, he worked as an electrical designer for high-performance processing modules for space hardware at Airbus Defence and Space.

Timothy Chase

Ph.D. Candidate/Computer Engineer, University at Buffalo/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Timothy is a computer engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo in the Distributed RObotics and Networked Embedded Sensing (DRONES) Lab under Dr. Karthik Dantu and the Advanced Navigation and Control Systems Lab under Dr. John Crassidis. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University at Buffalo. His research interests include spacecraft perception and autonomy, optical navigation systems, simultaneous localization and mapping, and embedded computer vision.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Derek De Vries

LMDS Fellow Emeritus, Nothrop Grumman Propulsion Systems: Mr. Derek R. DeVries, P.E., LMDS Fellow Emeritus for Discipline of Avionics and Controls at Northrop Grumman Propulsion Systems. Senior Member of IEEE with over 35 years’ experience in the Aerospace Industry in Operation, Integration, and Development of Space Launch Systems. PHM Society Fellow, Board of Directors, and Honored as a Luminary Speaker for the PHM 2015 Conference. B.Sc Electrical Engineering from University of Utah, and M.Sc. Electrical Engineering from Utah State University. Industrial Advisory Board Member for the University of Utah Electrical Engineering, AIAA Standards Committee NATO Scientific Achievement Award 2016 "Application of Integrated Munitions health Management", Member for AIAA “S-122-2006 Direct Current Power Systems for Earth-Orbiting Satellites”, 15 U.S./Foreign Patents, and AIAA 2001 JPC Arthur D. Rhea Best Paper Award for "Ordnance Components and Systems". Research/Development interests include advanced Avionics and Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) of integrated systems.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Wolfgang Fink

Associate Professor, University of Arizona: Professor Fink is the inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair, University of Arizona with joint appointments in the Departments of ECE, BME, SIE, AME, and Ophthalmology & Vision Science. Prof. Fink is named AIMBE Fellow, PHMS Fellow, SPIE Lifetime Fellow, ARVO Fellow, NAI Lifetime Fellow, UA da Vinci Fellow, UA ACABI Fellow, and Senior Member IEEE. He holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, University of Tübingen, Germany. Among numerous awards Prof. Fink received: NASA Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Launch Honoree Award in 2002, co-recipient of the 2009 R&D Magazine’s R&D 100 and R&D 100 Editors’ Choice Award both for the DOE-funded Artificial Retina Project, co-recipient of the 2009 NASA Board Award for pioneering work on a disruptive autonomous space exploration paradigm, co-winner of the $200,000 DOE/NREL-sponsored E-ROBOT Prize in 2021, and recipient of the 2023 SPIE Meinel Technology Achievement Award.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Alexandre Popov

NASA Emeritus Docent at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and AIAA Systems Engineering Technical Committee (SETC) Member, McGill University: currently working on MBSE and PHM-based technologies with predictive diagnostics capability to maintain/support crew health (Human Health and Performance (HHP)) on the ISS program and future manned space exploration missions. His efforts on "PHM for Astronauts" project within US/Canadian/Russian collaboration framework are focused on a paradigm shift from telemedicine to HHP autonomy based on systems engineering concepts, methods and techniques, which are to identify precursors and computationally generated biomarkers of impending health issues, that otherwise would have gone undetected. Contributed to three manned space programs: BURAN space transportation system (1983-1988), Mir space station (1988-1998), and the ISS program at RSC-Energia (1996-1998), Lockheed Martin Canada (2000-2003) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) (2003-2014). Ran a project enabling Crew Electronic Health Records (CEHR) technology on the ISS program and led CSA efforts on system requirements and conceptual prototype development. AIAA SETC member since 2009. AIAA Senior Member.

Andrew Hess

President, The Hess PHM Group, Inc.: Consultant to government and industry on advanced diagnostics, prognostics, data and predictive analytics, CBM, smart manufacturing, health and asset management of machines and engineering systems. Previously program office lead for the JSF PHM effort. Current President of the PHM Society.

Mona Witkowski

Project Manager / Deputy Project Manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: OCO-2 Project Manager, CloudSat Deputy Project Manager and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On Operations Mission Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over 41 years of experience at JPL in spacecraft development, operations, risk management and mission assurance. Recipient of NASA Exceptional Service Medal for TOPEX/Poseidon Mission Assurance and NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for Deep Space Network Risk Management.

Kedar Naik

Staff Consultant - AI Technical Lead, BAE Systems, Space & Mission Systems: Kedar Naik is Senior Principal Engineer II and Artificial Intelligence Technical Lead at BAE Space & Mission Systems. He specializes in machine-learning applications related to spacecraft autonomy, thermal control, adaptive optics, spectral remote sensing, and ground operations. Prior to joining Ball, he was at Northrop Grumman, researching the application of machine learning to cyber-security problems. His professional and research interests lie in machine learning, design optimization, and computational math. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University, where he was a member of the Aerospace Design Lab, under the direction of Prof. Juan Alonso. He was an NDSEG Fellow from 2009 to 2013 and – during the course of his academic career – he completed internships at NASA Langley, NASA Glenn, the U.S. Army’s Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, and Pratt & Whitney. In addition to his doctorate, he holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from the University of Southern California.

Michael Lee

Deputy Manager, Mission Management & Integration, NASA - Kennedy Space Center: NASA Deputy Manager, Mission Management & Integration, Commercial Crew Program, Kennedy Space Center; 37 years experience in spacecraft mission & ground operations, Systems Integration, and Project Management. Was the NASA Mission Manager for the SpaceX Demo 1 mission to ISS in March 2019. Earned a B.S., in Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, and a M.S., in Space Systems Operations, Florida Institute of Technology.

John Kenworthy

Senior Manager Manager, BAE Systems: Mr. John Kenworthy is a Senior Manager at BAE Systems/Space and Mission Systems focused on a portfolio providing mission resiliency and survivability. John manages the Military Space system strategy, technology roadmaps, cultivating novel technologies, delivering operational systems, and capturing new business within this portfolio. Prior to working at BAE, as a U.S. Air Force civilian, John conducted cyber security vulnerability research, analysis, and assessments for satellite programs. He developed his cyber security skills focusing on national critical infrastructure conducting red team events to inform customers of potential security vulnerabilities and training customers in how to mitigate cyber security risks. At Lockheed Martin, John developed spacecraft fault protection and the flight software/systems team, supporting flight operations and software development for numerous NASA interplanetary spacecraft missions. As a fault protection engineer, John was on-console supporting mission operations for many interplanetary spacecraft critical events and anomaly recoveries. John holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Puget Sound and a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Denver. John attended the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program as a National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholar.

Zaid Towfic

Technical Group Supervisor, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Zaid Towfic holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Iowa. He received his Electrical Engineering M.S. in 2009 and Ph.D. in 2014, both from UCLA, where he focused on signal processing, machine learning, and stochastic optimization. After receiving his Ph. D., Zaid joined the MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he worked on distributed beam forming and geolocation, interference excision via subspace methods, simultaneous communication, and electronic warfare. Zaid joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January of 2017 and has been focused on machine learning and signal processing efforts. He is currently the technical group supervisor of the Reprogrammable Signal Processing Group of the Flight Telecommunication Section.

Vandi Verma

Deputy Manager Mobility and Robotic Systems Section, NASA JPL-Caltech: Vandi Verma is the Deputy Manager for Mobility and Robotics Systems at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Chief Engineer of Robotic Operations for the Mars 2020 mission with the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. As Deputy Manager for Mobility and Robotics she leads about 200 JPL roboticists developing new technology for future missions and working on a variety of JPL robotic missions. Robotics capabilities she has worked on are in regular use on the Perseverance, and Curiosity rovers, and in human spaceflight projects. She has been engaged in robotic operations on Mars since 2008 with the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity rover, Perseverance rover, and Ingenuity helicopter. She graduated from CMU RI with a Ph.D. in Robotics in 2005.