Speakers

Andrew P. Armacost officially began his tenure as the University of North Dakota’s 13th President on June 1, 2020. He previously served as Dean of the Faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, retiring in the rank of Brigadier General in 2019. As UND’s President, Armacost has led the campus to national recognition, including the 2021 Larry Abernathy Award from the International Town Gown Association and the 2022 ACE/Fidelity Investments Transformation Award from the American Council on Education. In 2021, UND was the first university in the nation to be designated as a member of the U.S. Space Force’s University Partnership Program.

Dr. Adams currently serves the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of North Dakota as Director of the School and Professor. He has previously served his country as an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force where he was a program manager with the Space and Missile Systems Center, and an aircraft maintenance technician. Dr. Adams's research interests include Electromagnetic wave propagation in complex media including ferrites, metamaterials, and chiral media; antenna design for both cellular and medical applications; and numerical schemes for the simulation of wave propagation in a variety of scenarios.  

Ms. Tran, as the Director of Aeronautics (2015-Present) and Deputy Director of Aeronautics (2010-2015) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC), provides technical and management oversight of research disciplines in air traffic management, airspace simulation and operations, autonomous systems, computational fluid dynamics analysis, vertical flight vehicle technology, experimental fluid mechanics, and wind tunnel operations. She ensures the safe operations of the world’s largest wind tunnels and Vertical Motion Simulator.  She has also served as the Aeronautics Research Director representing NASA Ames at the Aeronautics Mission Directorate. She works closely with the office of the Associate Administrator and its program directors to develop strategic plans and directions for Aeronautics, including several critical initiatives such as Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) and Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD), Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (X-59), and other transformational projects.  Ms. Tran is the lead inventor of the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) heat shield material that enabled two sample return missions, three mars missions and currently used as the primary heatshield for Space-X Dragon capsules.  Ms. Tran earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from San Jose State University.

 

Ionel Stefan is Amprius’ Chief Technology Officer. He joined Amprius in its very early days in 2009 as a Senior Scientist, initially to lead electrochemistry for silicon nanowire anode-based lithium-ion batteries. Dr. Stefan now leads Amprius' development of silicon nanowire electrochemistry, cell technology -- including material design, cell design and engineering -- and product development. At Amprius, he has served as Principal Investigator on multiple projects, including NASA, Army, DOE and USABC-funded research and development efforts.

Ionel Stefan received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University (2002) with research activities focused on the development of new materials and devices for energy production and storage. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, developing high temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Later, at Nanosys, he became familiar with silicon nanowire materials and developed methanol fuel cells with catalysts supported on nanowire electrodes. At Nanosys, Ionel began developing silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries. At Amprius since 2009, he leads development of materials and electrochemistry for silicon anode-based cells and products.

Dr. Mark Askelson is the Associate Vice President for Research—National Security Initiative at the University of North Dakota (UND). He recently served as Executive Director of the Research Institute for Autonomous Systems (RIAS), Associate Dean of Research for the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at UND.

Dr. Robert J. Kraus is the Dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, a world-renowned center for aerospace learning, nationally acclaimed for our achievements in collegiate aviation education, atmospheric sciences, space studies, and Earth system science and policy.

With 850 faculty and staff members serving 2,100 students from around the world, the Odegard School has earned an international reputation as one of the premiere Aviation and Aerospace colleges in the world. In addition to providing the highest quality education possible at a reasonable cost, the Odegard school has been very successful in garnering $18 million in externally funded contracts and research projects each year. With more than 130 airplanes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial systems, and a myriad of projects studying the Earth up to and through the sky, into space, to Mars and beyond, the School is leading the charge into the future of aerospace.

Paul Stevens is the CEO of Voltitude Ltd and the former Head of Design for the Airbus Zephyr High-Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS) program. He established Voltitude Ltd, a new company dedicated to “Unlocking the Stratosphere®”, and leads the development of High-Altitude Platforms, technology, applications, and payloads, and has spent over 20 years developing and demonstrating HAPS systems and technology. Paul is a Physicist by academic training and a Chartered Engineer specializing in System Engineering for HAPS.

PAUL STEVENS BIOGRAPHY

Dex has been with AeroVironment for 6 years in various roles, Vice President and General Manager, Director of Test Airworthiness and Safety, Chief Test Pilot, Lead Crew Instructor, and Flight Test Manager.  He has also served as the Chief Pilot and STaC Manager for Amazon Prime Air on the Data Acquisition Team. Prior to these roles, Dex was in the Royal Air Force where he had the privilege of being involved in many of the unmanned system initiatives being adopted by the UK MoD such as the trialing of the Insitu / Boeing ScanEagle with the Joint Test & Evaluation Group, standing up the first UK MQ-9 Reaper Squadron at Creech AFB, establishing and leading a UK MQ-9 Training Unit at Holloman AFB, and being appointed as the first Unmanned Systems Advisor in the UK’s Defense Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL), working alongside the major UK Defense industries to bring unmanned and autonomous system capability to the UK.

 

 

Dr. Noren Pan has served as President of MicroLink Devices since its founding in May 2000. After founding MicroLink Devices, Dr. Pan established Mitsubishi Electric,Agilent Technologies, and GCS as key customers. Dr. Pan led the company to profitability in 2005 and continues to build significant value around MicroLink’s corecompetence in epitaxial wafer manufacturing for HBTs and epitaxial lift off solar cells. He is responsible for the development of novel processes anddevice structures for improvements in microwave and solar cell device performance.  

His current work centers on the advancement of high efficiency solar cells for low altitude and stratospheric flight.  He led efforts at MicroLink to establish a production infrastructure of ELO high efficiency solar cells, which led to multiple long endurance Zephyr flights including the most recent 64-day flight during the Summer of 2022. Dr. Pan served as chief scientist at Kopin Corporationfrom 1995-2000. He led the marketing and engineering efforts to develop AlGaAs and InGaP HBT materials for cellular phone applications. Dr. Pan hasbuilt more than 10 successful HBT programs worldwide for companies such as Skyworks (formerly Rockwell), TriQuint, Anadigics, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba,GCS, RFMD, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Agilent Technologies, and Nortel Networks. The yearly revenue from these programs peaked at $80M in 2000, the year in which Dr. Pan left Kopin to start MicroLink Devices. 

Dr. Pan was previously a senior scientist at Raytheon Research (1988-1995) where hedemonstrated novel high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and bipolar transistors by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition epitaxial growthtechnique.  Dr. Pan is a senior member of IEEE and was inducted to the Chicago Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame in 2007.  He earned his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has published more than 70 papers.

Hamed Khalkhali is the President of Swift Engineering located in San Clemente, CA. Swift Engineering is a small company focused on UAV R&D and manufacturing of composite aerospace platforms. Hamed has worked in AeroVironment as the Global Vice President of Engineering and Program Management before joining Swift Engineering. Before that, he worked in Safran Electronics & Defense, Parker Aerospace Flight Control System, and General Motors. Hamed is an adjunct faculty in Mechanical Engineering Department in Cal Poly Pomona, CA since 2006. He has earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from SUT, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Wright State University, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In addition, he has obtained his MBA from Cal Lutheran University. He considered himself a system engineer with strong appetite toward system modeling and simulation.

Dr. Julia Kubanek is an Earth Observation Campaign Scientist at the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, where she is responsible for developing and implementing ground-based and airborne campaigns including HAPS to support the development of future Earth Observation satellite missions. Julia has 15 years of experience in the national and international Earth Observation sector including project and stakeholder management, data analysis and training.

 

Matt Steele, Director of Operations at Packet Digital, leads the company's projects, engineering teams, and manufacturing operations with 16 years of engineering and project management experience in the development and mass production of advanced electronics. He has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from North Dakota State University. Matt has led the development of Packet Digital's high-efficiency small sat power module in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Space Force, as well as numerous commercial and defense programs to design and deliver high-performance battery and power solutions for autonomous systems used around the world.

 

Kevin-Christian Garzon Galindo holds a Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.-Ing.) degree in Transportation Engineering with an emphasis on Traffic System Technology and Logistics in Air Traffic Management from Technische Universität Dresden in Germany. While his time in Germany he served in various commitees and commissions including the University Senate as well as worked and tutored in an Airbus A320 Simulator.

Before joining NASA in 2019 he spent one year abroad at TU Delft in the Netherlands studying Aerospace Engineering.

At NASA’s Airspace Operations Laboratory he conducted research in Airline Delay Cost metrics working closely with Airline representatives and has since then worked on Stratospheric Operations mainly the integration and operation of future supersonic and hypersonic aircraft focusing on safety-related systems and impact on Airspace. He is further responsible for integration of weather models and vehicle dynamics into a simulation environment and scenario creation for Industry testing and collaborative evaluation.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-christian-garzon-galindo-5b9649194/

Matt Fladeland Biography

Dr. Meghan Saephan is currently a Computer Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center in the Intelligent Systems Division. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.S. and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University also in Mechanical Engineering. During her doctoral studies Dr. Saephan was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF). Dr. Saephan is currently the Human-Autonomy Teaming Multi-operator, Multi-vehicle Activity co-Tech Lead for the Transformational Tools and Technologies project and the PI for the Intelligent Long Endurance Observing System (ILEOS) project. Her current research interests include human-machine interaction, human-machine teaming, autonomous systems, and multi-agent/swarm systems.

Dr. Paul Jaffe is an electronics engineer and researcher with 30 years of experience at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He has led or held major roles on dozens of space missions and on breakthrough technology development projects for civilian, defense, and intelligence community sponsors, including SSULI, STEREO, TacSat-1, TacSat-4, ORS, MIS, PRAM, CARINA, RSGS, PTROL, S2FOBs, LEctenna, and SWELL. He was responsible for electrical system and spacecraft computer hardware development. He served as coordinator and editor of two seminal solar power satellite study reports and was the principal investigator for ground-breaking power beaming and space solar research efforts. His current roles include program management and systems engineering of a portfolio of projects. He served as the Deputy Director of The Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Operational Energy Innovation office from 2021-2022. Since 2017, he has taught the course “Introduction to Power Beaming and Space Solar” in the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of Maryland. He has over 60 journal, conference, and patent publications and is the recipient of numerous awards. Dr. Jaffe has made many international speaking and media appearances, including as a TEDx speaker, on MSNBC, CuriosityStream, and the Science Channel’s “Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.” He is also active in educational and STEM outreach. He is currently a Program Manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, where he oversees the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) project.

Richard Gustafson has a 24-year career in technology start-ups in leadership roles of founder, executive in turn arounds and business expansion. Prior to this time, he spent a decade working at The Boeing Company and a mid-size specialty chemical company in finance, and information technology.  He graduated from Oregon State University in Business Management and Economics and has made a career of building high performance teams and developing trusted relationships to build value in companies for employees, customers, partners and shareholders.  In 2015, Richard became CEO of PowerLight Technologies, a first of its kind technology to use high intensity laser light to deliver power without wires, safely over long distance.  PowerLight has successfully performed a decade of design, build, test and validation in partnership with the Department of Defense and has reached the stage of productization and commercialization.

Russel Van Der Werff is currently serving as Vice President of Stratospheric Solutions for Aerostar.  Prior to that he was the Director of Engineering for the company.  Aerostar has been in the high-altitude flight business since the early 1950s, building systems for the Government and Military, NASA, and supporting commercial enterprises such as Project Loon.  Collectively Aerostar balloons have logged over a million hours in the stratosphere over the last five years.

Russ has over 15 years of technical and leadership experience, and has been excited to be a part of taking the Thunderhead balloon system from a handful of test flights to over 300 operational demonstrations.  Russ's specific subject matter expertise is in wind-steered navigation planning, systems engineering, and balloon system CONOPs.  He is also the de facto assignee for spreading the Gospel of Ballooning to the general public.

Russ holds Bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics, as well as a Master's in Business Administration.

Sidharth Arunkumar is a Design Engineering Manager at Sceye Inc, located in Moriarty, New Mexico. He is primarily a CAE Engineer, with over 12 years of experience in the automotive and aerospace industries.

He started working at Sceye in 2022, and currently heads the Design Engineering team at Sceye – where he is responsible for overall platform architecture and design with a focus on Vehicle dynamics, Flight performance and Testing/simulation. He has led the team to multiple successful concept demonstrations, test campaigns and stratospheric flights.

He was previously a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Cummins Inc, specializing in structural design and optimization. He holds an M.S in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico Tech and has an extensive background in Simulation led design.

 

Kevin Tucker has been the President at Near Space Corporation since May 2019. The NSC team designs and produces balloon systems for high altitude test and scientific purposes, plans and conducts launch and recovery operations for balloon systems into the stratosphere, produces inflatables for space structures, and operates an FAA designated UAS Test Range. NSC is based in Tillamook, Oregon. Prior to joining NSC, Kevin was the Vice President and General Manager of the FLIR Systems, Inc. Surveillance Group with approximately 1000 employees and operating locations in the United States and Internationally. Kevin joined FLIR in 1995 as the Program Manager for Imaging Systems

Kevin served in the United States Army as a Field Artillery officer. While in the Army, Kevin led infantry and artillery teams, deployed to combat operations, held command position, and was an instructor at US Army Field Artillery Officer School. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Optical Physics and Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York; and his Master’s in Business Administration from The University of Oregon.

Connie Brasil is a senior research associate for the San Jose State University Research Foundation at NASA Ames Research Center.  She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aviation Maintenance Management from San Jose State University and a Master of Science Degree in Aviation Operations from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.  Connie has been involved in many areas of NASA aviation research throughout the NextGen era.  Currently she is working on NASA’s Air Traffic Management – eXploration (ATM-X) project within the National Airspace System Exploratory Concepts & Technologies (NExCT) sub-project focusing on the cooperative and collaborative Upper Class E Traffic Management Concept.

 

Samer Halawi is a seasoned Telecom executive with a successful track record in building and transforming companies, globally. He brings tremendous experience and expertise, with more than 30 years in the automotive industry, investment banking, telecommunications, and global satellite communications.

Samer is currently the CEO of AALTO, an Airbus subsidiary developing a connectivity and earth observation business that leverages the pioneering and record-breaking Zephyr HAPS (High-Altitude Platform Stations).

Before that, Samer was Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Intelsat, where he was responsible for leading the Company’s global commercial operations with revenues close to $2 billion, including the mobility, media, government, and enterprise businesses, as well as the sales and marketing and communications teams.

Prior to joining Intelsat, Samer served as Chief Commercial Officer for OneWeb where he established and oversaw the product management, distribution, communications, business development, strategy, and sales and marketing functions for the company.

Before that, Samer held the position of Chief Executive Officer for Thuraya Telecommunications Company for six years, where he led a turnaround in Thuraya’s performance and positioning and drove its growth to become a prominent international mobile satellite operator.

Samer spent eight years at Inmarsat in global strategy and running operations for the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. His telecommunications experience includes roles at Flag Telecom and ICO Global Communications (ICO). His role at ICO followed a private placement for the shares of the company that he led during a three-year period in investment banking in the Middle East. Samer began his career in the automotive industry, where he occupied several positions with Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company in Michigan, USA.

Samer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University and an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the United States. He speaks 3 languages fluently.

 

Stephanie leads the overall planning and execution of mission and experimental flight test operations for SCEYE's stratospheric platforms. She has over 20 years of experience in the aerospace industry spread across design & development, integration, flight test planning and execution, operations and management. Stephanie is a graduate of an internationally recognized test pilot school, holds master's degrees in both Electrical and Flight Test Engineering, and is a single-engine and multi-engine pilot in more than 25 aircraft with commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates.

Lt. Col. Cory Turner's Biography