Our People
Principal Investigator
Dr. Karen Marais' research focuses on developing ways to deliver value through reliability, safety, and sustainability. She is the author or co-author of several technical publications, including 24 journal papers, two reports for the National Academies, and two book chapters. She received an NSF CAREER award in 2014. Dr. Karen Marais has worked in engineering for two decades. Dr. Marais holds a B. Eng. in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Stellenbosch and a B.Sc.in mathematics from the University of South Africa. She also holds a master's degree in space-based radar from MIT. She received her Ph.D.from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT in 2005. Prior to graduate school, she worked in South Africa as an electronic engineer.
Graduate Students
Takaharu in the news:
Wall Street Journal (Dec 2020): How to Build a Home on the Moon
INCOSE (July 2022): Best Student Paper Award
More about the award
Purdue Make Your Story Podcast (Oct 2022): Season 2 Episode 1
The Lunar Dispatch (by Will Dowd, Aug 2023): Super Blue Moon
Undergraduate Students
Previous Group Members
Jacqueline Ulmer | Resilient Space Habitats | MS (June 2023) | United States Air Force |
Neelakshi Majumdar | General Aviation Safety | PhD (May 2023) | Assistant Professor at University of Arkansas |
Xinguan Zhang | General Aviation Safety | BS (May 2023) | PhD Student at Purdue AAE |
Megan Cilento | Resilient Space Habitats | MS (August 2022) | Systems Engineer at Astrobotic |
Georgios Georgalis | Systems Engineering Failure Prevention | PhD (August 2021) | Data Scientist at Tufts University |
Divya Bhargava | Runway Incursion Reporting | PhD (August 2021) | Instructional Assistant Professor at Texas A&M |
Tracy El Khoury | Systems Engineering Education | MS (August 2020) | Technical Analyst at Oliver Wyman |
Archana Ravindra | No-Fault-Found Failures | MS (August 2020) | Systems Engineer at Honeywell |
Robert Kitching | Resilient Space Habitats (RETHi) | MS (August 2020) | FTL Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman |
Islam Nazmy | Satellite Constellation Reliability | MS (August 2020) | GNC Engineer at Starfish Space |
Kim Rink | Project Failure Analysis |
BS (May 2017), MS (May 2019) |
Mars Surface Operations Engineer at NASA JPL |
Nicoletta Fala | General Aviation Safety | PhD (August 2019) | Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University |
Theo Sorg | Project Failure Analysis | BS (August 2019) | PhD student at Purdue Engineering Education |
Neelakshi Majumdar | General Aviation Safety | MS (Dec 2018) | PhD Candidate at Purdue VRSS |
Arpan Chakraborty | General Aviation Safety | MS (Dec 2018) | Systems Engineer at Joby |
Eric Van De Riet | General Aviation Safety | MS (Dec 2018) | Operations Engineer at American Airlines |
Diane Aloisio | Project Failure Analysis |
MS (August 2015), PhD (Dec 2018) |
Senior Systems Engineer at Dynetics |
Krysta Rolle | Project Failure Analysis | BS (May 2018) | Undergraduate student at Purdue Polytechnic |
Alex Ilmain | Runway Incursion Analysis | BS (May 2017) | Flight Operations Engineer at Boeing |
Rakshit Chandrahasa | SoS Resilience | MS (May 2017) | Systems Engineer at Intelligrated Inc. |
Arjun Rao | General Aviation Safety | PhD (Dec 2016) | Human Factors Engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplanes |
Stephen Builta | Air Traffic Fuel Burn Analysis | MS (Dec 2016) | Flight Test Engineer at Lockheed Martin |
Weronika Juszczak | Project Failure Analysis | BS (May 2016) | Senior Manager of Date Analytics at Hillrom |
Valentine Goblet | General Aviation Safety | MS (May 2016) | Systems Engineer at Safran Electronics and Defense |
Yiging Ding | SoS Resilience | BS (May 2016) | PhD student at Stanford University |
Jingjing Guo | Air Traffic Control Risk Analysis | PhD (Dec 2015) | Edison Engineer at GE Global Research |
Hang Sheng | Stratospheric Fuel Burn | MS (Aug 2015) | Entrepeneur |
Payuna Uday |
Environmental Impacts of Aviation, SoS Resilience |
MS (June 2011) PhD (May 2015) |
Research Scientist at the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) |
Tiffany Le | Airport Surface Operations | MS (May 2014) | Product Manager at Boeing Aircraft |
Jessica Rivas | Total Ownership Cost | MS (May 2014) | Engineer at the Electric Boat Company |
David Rankine | Value of Energy | BS (May 2014) | Engineer at Alcoa |
Sarah Arnac | Aviation Data Analysis | BS (May 2013) | Design Engineer at Scaled Composites |
John Yerant | Aviation Data Analysis | BS (May 2013) | Project Engineer at Sikorsky |
Kevin Fernandes | Value of Energy | MS (May 2013) | AAPL Solutions |
Madhur Khadabadi | Value of Energy | MS (Dec 2013) | Senior Systems Engineer, Self Driving at Rivian |
Matthew Hill | Aviation Reliability Analysis | BS (Dec 2011) | Senior Systems Engineer at Boeing |
Delri Muller | Environmental Impacts of Aviation | MS (June 2011) | Logistics Manager at Unilever |
Matthew Robichaud | Aviation Maintenance Accidents | MS (May 2011) | Engineer at Bombardier |
Hyeoncheol Baik |
Air Traffic Delay Management |
MS (May 2011) |
Assistant Professor of Business Analytics, School of Business, Stockton University |