Former President:
Javier Stober
Javier was a Research Engineer in the Space Enabled Research Group. In that role, he leads the development and operations of the satellite laboratory and fosters collaborations with partnering organizations. Javier earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, researching novel propellants in the area of experimental hybrid rocket propulsion, as well as B.S. degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida. He has worked at various organizations across the engineering landscape, public and private, small and large, foreign and domestic, including NASA, Boeing, and Space Propulsion Group. Javier brings over ten years of community building and diversity outreach experience to the role and is excited to collaborate with community leaders on and off MIT campus.
Founding/Innovation Chairs (x2):
Bryce Doerr
Research scientist at NASA goddard
Bryce was a postdoctoral fellow in the Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) and Astrodynamics, space Robotics, and Controls Lab (ARCLab) at MIT. His work includes on-orbit robotic assembly of space structures and control of large collaborative swarms using Random Finite Sets. Bryce graduated with a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Minnesota. He also holds a position as a Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GNC) Engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center working on the WFIRST mission.
Nadia Figueroa
Nadia was a postdoctoral associate in the Interactive Robotics Group (IRG) at MIT. She is interested in endowing robots with the capabilities of learning, aiding and physically interacting with humans while performing complicated tasks in dynamic environments. Her contributions seek to solve salient problems in the areas of robot learning from demonstration, incremental and interactive learning and human-robot collaboration. Nadia obtained a PhD in Robotics from EPFL (Switzerland) at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Lab (LASA). Prior to her PhD studies, she spent time exploring different robotics and computer-vision related research topics at the DLR's (German Aerospace Center) Robotics and Mechatronics Institute and at the Engineering Department of NYU Abu Dhabi. She holds a BSc in Mechatronics from Monterrey Tech (Mexico) and Msc in Automation and Robotics from TU Dortmund (Germany).
Other members:
Katya Arquilla
Assistant Professor, AeroAstro, MIT
Yaniv Mordecai
Research engineer at Amazon