Tamaira E. Ross
Technical Fellow
The Boeing Company
BSAAE 1996
MSAAE 1998
"My Purdue engineering education taught me how to solve problems that no one has solved before. In my work, I love the fact that I frequently cannot find exactly what I need in a book because it doesn't exist. In a way, I'm writing the book for the next steps in aviation and spaceflight. I think that's really exciting. Purdue gave me the foundation to build upon to write the next chapter."
Ms. Tamaira Ross graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering in 1996 and a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1998. She also attended the University of Washington where she obtained a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2002, and a Technology Management MBA in 2008.
Ms. Ross is a Technical Fellow and aeronautical engineer in Boeing Defense, Space and Security where she does preliminary vehicle design and rapid development of aircraft and spacecraft. For the past four years, she has worked on Boeing's Phantom Phoenix small satellite program and related efforts. She has worked in product development for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and has recently worked on Boeing's ecoDemonstrator program which prototypes new technologies for higher efficiency airplanes and flight operations.
Her professional interests include aircraft design, spacecraft design, multi-disciplinary optimization and alternative energy. She has 10 patents, two of which have been built and tested as working prototypes.
Tamaira has taught classes on multi-disciplinary design, wireless power transmission, and engineering design methodology. In addition, she is an affiliate instructor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at the University of Washington where she teaches graduate classes in technical leadership.
She is the recipient of the 2011 Puget Sound Engineering Council Industry Engineer of the Year award, the Purdue Alumnus 2010 "40 under 40" award, and the Society of Women Engineers 2010 Emerging Leader in Product Research, Design and Engineering award.