People

bennett01@tamu.edu

Jillian Bennett, a member of VSCL since March of 2023, graduated in May of 2023 with her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Minor in Mathematics and in August of 2025 with her Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. She began her PhD with the lab in the Fall of 2025. Jillian has been an active member of the Aerospace Ambassador program since the Spring of 2021, 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, multiple time scale systems, and adaptive controls. She is working on her dissertation project with the Office of Naval Research on Adaptive Control for Multiple Time Scale Systems. She is a two time recipient of the Aerospace Graduate Excellence Fellowship and a recipient of the 2025 Stanger Endowed Fellowship and the 2025 Outstanding Mentoring Award for Graduate and Professional Students.

ckmcquinn@tamu.edu

Cassie-Kay McQuinn graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering with Engineering Honors, and a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering both from Texas A&M University. In addition to completing Engineering Honors, she is a Presidential Endowed Scholar and has earned a certificate of Holistic Leadership in Engineering through completion of the Zachry Leadership Program. Her Masters thesis, titled “Online Near-Real Time Open-Loop System Identification from Closed-Loop Flight Test Data“, investigated identifying linear dynamic models onboard a vehicle in near-real time with and without an active controller. This work was performed for a small Unmanned Air System (UAS) utilizing low cost, commercial-off-the-shelf components. She is currently pursing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering.

Cassie-Kay joind VSCL in Fall of 2021 and is currently the Flight Testing Operations Lead for the team. She is a reciepiant of the Stanger Endowed Fellowship and the Doctoral Research Excellence Assisstantship. Additionally, she is a member of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. While in graduate school, she has interned with Sandia National Labs and the Air Force Research Lab Autonomous Capabilities Team (ACT3). Most recently, while working with ACT3, she was hosted by the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) to support space test research and collaborations to enhance TPS’ Space Test Course (STC). Cassie-Kay’s current work investigates applying run time assurance algorithms for safety critical system. Her interests are in the implementation of trusted autonomy, flight testing, and aircraft dynamics.

People

Adaptive Flight Control