People

Abigail Andrews is a sophomore Aerospace Engineering student and was raised in Troy, TX. Andrews has a passion for both aviation and design. She received her private pilot certificate in January of 2021 and her instrument rating in August 2023. While Andrews attended VSCL meetings in the spring, she is excited to join as an official VSCL Undergraduate Researcher in Fall of 2023 to pursue her passion for aviation through flight research.

Allison Barnes

Allison Barnes is a freshman from Odessa, Texas pursing a Bachelors of Science in Engineering. She is interested in pursuing project management within the aerospace industry. Barnes is looking forward to becoming more involved in VSCL and is excited to start pursuing her passion for flight testing and research. Prior to joining VSCL, she interned at a lab at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Jillian Bennett

bennett01@tamu.edu

Jillian Bennett, a member of VSCL since March of 2023, graduated on May 12th with her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Minor in Mathematics. She will begin her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering with the VSCL this Fall. As an undergrad, Jillian was an active member of the Aerospace Ambassador program, becoming lead ambassador her senior year. She also welcomed freshmen to Texas A&M as a Fish Camp chair in the Summer of 2022. Additionally in the Summer of 2022 she was the recipient of the Undergraduate Student Research Grant from Texas A&M. She has interned with Los Alamos National Laboratory and TAMU Material Science and Engineering, working on characterizing impacted materials. She has changed paths, gaining an interest in flight test engineering, reinforcement learning, and adaptive controls. She is beginning her graduate degree with a project with ONR on Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems.

Sadie Binz

Sadie Binz is a junior majoring in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in mathematics. She is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society and SAE Aero Design Team. Sadie has interned at Bell Helicopter with the Flight Technology team during flight testing of the Bell 525 Relentless, and she is excited to intern at Bell again in the summer. From this experience, Sadie developed an interest in flight testing and hopes to get her private pilot’s license in the future.

Payton Clem

Payton Clem is a Master of Science Student in the Aerospace Engineering department. She is graduating from Texas A&M with her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with Minors in Mathematics and Astrophysics in Fall 2023. During her undergrad, she was involved in campus activities like working at the Memorial Student Center to provide support to her fellow Aggies, and was a member of P.S.U.N., an on campus organization that provides free programs and events to children with special needs. Finding an interest in research, she worked in Dr. Daniel Selva’s lab, SEAK, on a NASA SBIR project with Aureus Innovation to develop a new systems engineering language. This involved creating a satellite design from scratch using systems engineering diagrams with the SIMPL developing language. Within the SEAK lab she also assisted in developing a rule based planner that would be used in a space mission simulation for space mission design. She was also the project lead of her capstone design group, which provided a satellite constellation design, as well as mission planning software to aid in the solution of an on-orbit servicing problem for L3Harris. As she continued her research, Payton developed an interest into the applications of artificial intelligence within the aerospace engineering field. Payton became a member of VSCL in her senior year, applying her interest in AI by working on the Robust Threat Detection project, research she will continue during her Masters. Her work with VSCL will be primarily focused on Autonomous, Nonlinear Control of Air, Space and Ground Systems.

Zachary Curtis

Zachary Curtis graduated from Utah Tech, in May 2024 with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering. Throughout his undergraduate years, he pursued various internships to broaden his practical experience. At RAM Aviation Space & Defense, he interned within the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) group, the prototyping lab, and the controls engineer group, gaining insights into different facets of mechanical engineering. Additionally, he had the opportunity to intern at Baxter Aerospace, a consulting group, where he worked as a mechanical engineer specializing in designing liquid nitrogen baths for application in nuclear fusion research. Furthermore, during his junior year he engaged in research activities at Utah Tech under the guidance of PhD Monty Kennedy, focusing on Shock and Vibration testing. This involved utilizing the NASA-sponsored Shock Sat testing device to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of shock testing on spacecraft.

Chantz Elliott

Chantz Elliott graduated in Spring of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. He has been an active member of VSCL since Fall of 2023, working on flight test validation of small fixed-wing aircraft at RELLIS. Chantz interned at Air Tractor during the summer of 2023 and will be interning at Scaled Composites for the summer of 2024 before returning to Texas A&M to pursue a Master of Engineering in Aerospace Engineering.

Laura Escamilla

Laura Escamilla is a sophomore specializing in Applied Mathematics Computational Science and has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2022. Laura possesses hands-on experience, having actively participated in multiple test flights in handling small fixed-wing aircraft at RELLIS. In addition, Laura interned at VSCL in summer 0f 2023 where she worked using Vector Nav technology to calibrate servos on small fixed-wing vehicles. Laura also had testing at Texas A&M University Oran W. Nick Low-Speed Wind Tunnel, where she got to experience a real-world testing environment. With a profound interest in Computer Science, flight testing, and embedded systems, she consistently seeks opportunities to bridge theory and application.

Gabriel Eskridge

gabriel_shun@tamu.edu

Gabriel Eskridge is a class of 2026 Engineering major hoping to pursue Aerospace Engineering. He has been an active member of VSCL since Fall of 2022 working on the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project.

Kameron Eves

Kameron Eves is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. He also received minors in mathematics and business. At BYU, Kameron worked in the Multiple Agent Intelligent Coordination and Control (MAGICC) laboratory. At the VSCL, Kameron fills a variety of roles. He spent two years designing, building, and testing a 50 lb multirotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) for the army to use in autonomous reconnaissance. Kameron was responsible for the software, embedded systems, and dynamic analysis of this UAV. Kameron’s dissertation topic is Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems with specific application to hypersonic aircraft. Kameron’s research interests are theoretical and computational dynamics and control of aerospace systems. Additionally, he is interested in engineering teaching methods in higher education. Professionally, he plans to join academia and teach at a university.