Abigail Andrews is a Junior 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. Andrews has been a member of VSCL since 2023, and is excited to 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
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 second-year Master of Science student in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, working in the Vehicle Stability and Controls Laboratory (VSCL). She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, with minors in Mathematics and Astrophysics, in Fall 2023.
During her undergraduate studies in Dr. Daniel Selva’s SEAKERS lab, she contributed to a NASA SBIR project on systems engineering and led a capstone team designing a satellite constellation for L3Harris. Her interest in artificial intelligence applications in aerospace engineering led her to join VSCL.
At VSCL, her research primarily involves developing a reinforcement learning controller for a target tracking problem involving a hostile target, with environmental factors like wind and sun incorporated for concealment (Robust Threat Detection, sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory). She is also contributing to the Cycle of Learning project, also sponsored by ARL, which investigates leveraging human modalities in AI training.
Through these projects and her broader work in the lab, she has gained extensive experience in conducting and managing flight tests to validate her research. Her primary interests lie in autonomous, nonlinear guidance, navigation, and control for aerial systems, as well as flight testing.
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 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.