Graduation

Hannah Lehman and Chris Leshikar graduated with their Ph.D. Degrees in Aerospace Engineering.Congratulations Hannah and Chris, VSCL is proud of your accomplishments!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah Lehman is the 62nd graduate student advised to completion of their degree by Dr. Valasek, and the title of her dissertation is “Hierarchical Auctions for the Coordination of Heterogeneous Agents using Machine Learning“. Hannah will be working at Sandia National Laboratories, where she has now done four graduate internships.

 

 

 

 

Chris Leshikar is the 63rd graduate student advised to completion of their degree by Dr. Valasek. Chris’s research was supported by the National Science Foundation under the Center for Autonomous Air Mobility and Sensors (CAAMS) and the title of his dissertation is “Markov Parameter Based Methods for System Identification“. Chris will begin seminary formation for the Catholic Diocese of Victoria later this year.

 

 

 

Congratulations to the VSCL undergraduate research assistants who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University on May 9th 2025!

VSCL Undergraduate Carla Zaramella graduated in December 2024 with her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. Carla will be joining VSCL as a Masters student starting in Spring 2025. She has been an active member of VSCL since January 2022 and has contributed towards the System Identification project and aided with Flight Testing. Carla has interned with Raytheon Technologies over the last two summers, working on land/air radar defense systems.

Congratulations to the VSCL undergraduate research assistants who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University on May 10th 2024!

VSCL graduate student Dr. Kameron Eves has graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy on May 13th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL graduate student Dr. Garrett Jares has graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy on May 13th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL graduate student Esteban Gomez has graduated with his Master of Science on May 13th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL graduate student Connor Atkins has graduated with his Master of Science on May 13th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL undergraduate student Alexander Gross has graduated with his Bachelors on May 12th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL undergraduate student Cameron Brooks has graduated with his Bachelors on May 12th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL undergraduate student Lauren Herrera has graduated with her Bachelors on May 12th in Aerospace Engineering.

VSCL undergraduate student Jillian Bennett has graduated with her Bachelors on May 12th in Aerospace Engineering.

 

 

VSCL graduate student Ritwik Bera has graduated with his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Ritwik successfully defended his thesis “A Modular Framework for Training Autonomous Systems via Human Interaction” in December 2021. He is now working with Zoox in Foster CIty, CA as a Software Engineer in the Planning and Control department working on trajectory generation algorithms. Ritwik joined VSCL in 2019 after having spent a summer working with the lab in 2017 and has focused much of his work on human-in-the-loop learning to train autonomous systems to perform various tasks. Ritwik has also led the efforts for the Enhancing the Cycle-of-Learning for Autonomous Systems to Facilitate Human-Agent Teaming project.

 

 

 

VSCL graduate student Shelby Hackett has graduated with her Master of Engineering in Aerospace Engineering. Shelby will be going to work for Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA where she will be a part of the guidance, navigation, and control systems group and will aid in various space missions. Shelby has been a member of VSCL since Fall 2020 and has worked on a number of projects including Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents. She has also served as a Teaching Assistant for AERO 321: Dynamics of Aerospace Vehicles and aided undergraduate students in learning aircraft stability and control.

 

 

 

 

VSCL graduate student Blake Krpec has graduated with his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Blake successfully defended his thesis “Vision-Based Marker-Less Landing of a UAS On a Moving Ground Vehicle” in March 2022. He is now working as an Engineer in the Applied Sensing Department for Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. Blake began working with VSCL during the fall semester of his sophomore year (Fall 2016) as an undergraduate research assistant and began working on his masters in August 2019. Blake was selected to be a Journeyman Fellow for the Army Research Lab and his main research interests include computer vision, controls using computer vision, and traditional controls applied to unmanned air systems

 

 

 

VSCL undergraduate research assistant Dakota Kridler has graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Dakota will be working as a Flight Test & Systems Engineer for Albers Aerospace in McKinney, TX. He has been working with VSCL since January 2019 and has worked to develop the air vehicle autonomy on the Agile Technology Development (ATD) – Air-Ground Coordinated Teaming project. Dakota is also a US Army veteran who served from 2012 to 2017 as an Infantryman during the Inherent Resolve Campaign.

 

 

 

 

VSCL undergraduate research assistant Luke Moy has graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Luke will be working as an R&D Engineer 1 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Luke has been a member of VSCL since August 2020 and has been involved in much of the flight testing operations at RELLIS Campus. Luke has also been an integral part of the Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents project.

VSCL Undergraduate Research Assistant Natalie Warnock graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering with Summa Cum Laude in May 2021. Warnock has been hired by Bell, Fort Worth, TX.

VSCL Undergraduate Research Assistant Garrett Dorsett graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in Ocean Engineering in May 2021. Dorsett with be pursuing his Master of Science in Ocean Engineering in Fall 2021.