Cathryn Davis
Cathryn is a rising sophomore in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Georgia. She is working on NASA Ames’ Starling satellite swarm project to design an EGSE controller board to assist with testing. Her hobbies outside of work include playing bass guitar and skateboarding with her friends. Cathryn’s favorite space themed movie is Hidden Figures, and her favorite spaced-themed television show is Rick & Morty.
Kieran Davis
Kieran is a rising sophomore at Northeastern University, where she is studying Finance, Political Science, and Sustainability. She is working under Emergent’s management team on various accounting and human resources projects, including budget forecasting, benefits assessment and M&A. Outside of work, Kieran enjoys baking, working out, and spending time with friends. Her favorite space-themed TV show is Futurama.
Emma Jacobs
Emma is a rising senior at the University of Chicago, majoring in Computer Science with a specialization in Computer Security and minoring in Statistics. She is working on designing and implementing a security framework for Emergent’s SUMMIT front-end web application. When Emma is not working, she is prepping for competitions and performances with her school’s dance team. Her favorite space themed movie is Interstellar.
Rebecca Knoche
Rebecca is a rising sophomore at Arizona State University, where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She is working on the USSF/SMC’s LDPE Telemetry Splitter project, in which she develops aspects of the GUI in order to allow customer interaction with the satellite telemetry data. Rebecca has also written unit and integration tests in order to deal with exception handling and to confirm that the software is responding appropriately to the service commands. When she is not working, Rebecca enjoys running and hiking throughout Colorado. Her favorite space-themed movie/show is The Arrival, but Mork and Mindy is a close second.
Anastasia Muszynski
Anastasia graduated with her Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from CU Boulder in 2020 and will graduate from CU with her Master’s in 2021, with a concentration in Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation. She is adding higher-fidelity force models to the Navigation Filter in Emergent’s Cluster Flight Application Suite to improve filter state estimates. Her current hobbies include (often dubious) baking experiments, reading, and hiking. Choosing a favorite sci-fi movie is a nearly insurmountable challenge, but Arrival and Interstellar are both certainly near the top.
Alexei Smith
Alexei is a Master’s student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She is working on developing the attitude determination functionality in the ASCENT simulation environment. When she’s not working, Alexei is baking bread, knitting, or hiking. A recent Star Wars convert, her favorite space movies are Rogue One and Interstellar.
Paul Carter
Paul is a rising senior at Georgia Tech majoring in Aerospace Engineering. He is working on new navigation features for Emergent’s Cluster Flight Navigation software component (NAV). He is implementing a variety of data filtering and pre-processing techniques to improve the navigation results of NAV. Outside of work, Paul likes to do puzzles, listen to music (lately it’s been the Grateful Dead), and play baseball. His favorite space-themed movie is Interstellar, which got him interested in pursuing aerospace engineering in the first place.
Niklas Endler
Niklas is entering graduate school at the University of Georgia in the Fall to study Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working on a project with NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program group. More specifically, the project focuses on developing a platform for making spacecraft buses for varying payloads. As a mechanical engineer, his tasks are focused on the deployment of the solar panels. This means designing proper mechanisms to both open and lock the solar panels upon opening as well as structural analysis to validate the design. He really enjoys his work on this project – it’s moving fast, and the team is really awesome. When Niklas is not working, he loves to skateboard and go fishing on weekends. His favorite space-themed movie is Interstellar and Rick & Morty for television.
Jack McDaniels
Jack is a senior at the University of Georgia, graduating this December with a major in mechanical engineering. He is working on the Starling satellite swarm project at NASA Ames, supporting the systems engineering and integration and testing teams to create a browser-based application that will provide data management and analytics tools for hardware testing. When Jack is not working, he loves camping and going on road trips to national parks. His favorite space themed movie is Galaxy Quest.
Gary Nguyen
Gary is a rising junior in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is working on the development of SUMMIT’s front-end web application, a data visualization tool and interface that allows users track the progress of active scenarios and review results of completed simulations and tests. Outside of work, he is a chess enthusiast and casual gamer. His favorite space-themed movie is The Martian, which follows the journey of an astronaut stranded on Mars in a fight for survival with limited resources.
Alexander Preau
Alexander is a rising 4th year in Physics with minors in Computer Science and Russian at the University of Chicago. He created a demonstration of Emergent’s DASHER autonomy software executing a lunar insertion orbit with our ASCENT modeling and simulation framework, in the process of adding lunar models support to the ASCENT simulation. Outside of work, Alexander enjoys running along the Chicago lakefront and cooking. His favorite space-themed TV show is Star Trek DS9.
Cooper Shearer
Cooper is a graduate student in Electrical Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is working on a real time object detection system that can detect ships from satellite imagery. Outside of work, Cooper enjoys woodworking and 3D printing. His favorite space themed sci-fi tv show is Battlestar Galactica.
Calvin Tran
Calvin is a rising senior at California State Univ. Long Beach in Aerospace Engineering. He is working on the USSF/SMC’s LDPE Telemetry Splitter project, creating regression tests for the software. The LDPE Telemetry Splitter archives, monitors, and controls spacecraft telemetry from multiple hosted payloads. Outside of work, Calvin loves going outside, whether it’s climbing, hiking, backpacking, or snowboarding. He loves the outdoors and adventure. His favorite space-themed sci-fi movie has to be Star Wars. His love for the story and the spaceships inspired him to become an engineer!