Colin Watson is the Project Lead and Founder of Project Boom. Colin is a junior aerospace engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, and an active member of the Sooner FSAE Racing Team and the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. As Project Boom’s Lead, Colin manages the day to day operations of the team, including manufacturing, engineering, finances, fundraising, and recruiting.

Cole Replogle is a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University where he earned B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. He is currently an intern at Southwest Research Institute within the Rotating Machinery Dynamics group. He will begin an MRes & PhD in Future Propulsion and Power at the University of Cambridge beginning in the fall of 2020.

Johnathan Burgess graduated in the spring from Oklahoma State University with degrees in B.S. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He is returning to OSU to earn a Masters in MAE, while continuing research on turboelectric propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft. Johnathan is the Aerodynamics Lead for Project Boom and is responsible for the overall shape of their aircraft(s). He enjoys surfing and being able to enjoy the outdoors with his family and two kids.

Jake was a Senior in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University, receiving his B.S. in May 2021. Jake also interned at General Atomics – Electromagnetics in their Missile Defense and Space Systems group where he worked with a team of interns in developing the conceptual design of a low-cost missile. Jake also enjoys hiking, running, as well as playing and writing music.

Allison was a senior at Mount Horeb High School seeking to study aerospace engineering at university beginning in fall 2021. With a passion for creative problem solving and design, she loved working with the team to create the early aircraft models. When not working on the project, she likes sewing, participating in choral groups, and competing in DECA.

Skyler Jacob is a senior at Oklahoma State University who is currently applying to continue his study of aircraft design and engineering management through a Master’s program starting Spring of 2021. Skyler has experience building planes through SpeedFest, a design, build, fly program at OSU. 

Gaurav is a recent graduate from the University of Manchester with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering. With a passion for effective mechanical design, he supplemented his studies by working with competitive Design-Make-Test groups on campus such as the Manchester CanSat Project and Underwater Robotics at Berkeley. He has also interned with HiPeRLab Berkeley, working on UAV control. With an avid interest in aviation and motorsport, he looks forward to pursuing a career in those industries. In his free time, he likes to sketch, play music and tennis.

Abdalrahman (Mann) Mansy is a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University where he earned B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. Mann was heavily involved in conducting undergraduate research, and participating on the college student council. Mann was also involved with propulsion technology, working on a hybrid turboelectric propulsion system. He is pursuing a M.S in Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University with a focus on UAS development.

Minos Park is a graudating senior at University of California at Berkeley. With a background in computer science and robotics, Minos is interested in finding novel approaches to solving problems using computation, and validating them with experiments. Previously interned as a data engineer, and currently working at Cal’s robotics lab doing UAV related research.

Daniel was a third-year Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Bath, with a keen interest in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He previously helped to design a communications relay rocket as part of the Bath Rocket Team, and in his spare time, he enjoys water sports like sailing and paddle-boarding. On Project Boom, Daniel led the design of the parachute ejection system used to recover the Phase-One aircraft, while also being responsible for tracking aircraft mass properties.

Shiva Vallabhaneni is a senior at Purdue University studying Aerospace Engineering with a focus in dynamics and controls as well as propulsion. Shiva has also worked as a visual artist and a brand/identity designer. Currently he also works as a Supplemental Instruction leader for Fluid Mechanics at Purdue.

Aldo Martinez is a USC graduate and current Aerodynamics engineer at Boeing. Along with providing his engineering expertise, Aldo has helped guide our team of young engineers into the professional aerospace world. His support is has been a critical part of our team’s continued professional development.

Josh Farahzad was the Founder and Project Lead for Operation Space, a collaborative design team that successfully launched a two-stage rocket to 150,000 ft. The work that Josh’s team did, lay the groundwork for other teams like Project Boom. Josh was Project Boom’s first contributor and now serves as an active advisor.

Craig Damlo is a Senior Systems Engineer at Blue Origin and an early advisor for Project Boom. Craig’s experience working as a systems engineer has been a crucial part of getting our team set up to design our supersonic aircraft.

Lucien Junkin is the Chief Engineer for NASA’s Space Exploration Vehicle. Since joining the project on July 2nd, Lucien Junkin has provided vital guidance to our leadership. Lucien’s many years in the industry offers our team a perspective that would be otherwise impossible to obtain.

Bryce Fong is an Aeronautical Engineer at Lockheed Martin and has actively worked with our engineering teams to help design our aircraft. His constant technical guidance has had a key role in many of the engineering decisions made throughout the project.

After graduating from the University of Leeds in 2011, Matt Stott went on to work at Cobham as a project and program manager. Matt Stott’s years of program management experience has helped our team develop into an efficient engineering design team. Along with this, he has used his experience with data export regulations to help guide our team’s global collaborative efforts.

Gonzalo Graham is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and a former Tesla engineer. Mr. Graham is now the CEO and founder of Watfly Flying Cars. His experience running his company and working on engineering design teams similar to Project Boom has been crucial to our success.

Norris Tie received his Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA and his Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University. Mr. Tie is now the CEO of Exosonic, a start-up aiming to design and build a low boom supersonic commercial airliner. Mr. Tie’s technical and administrative background is a perfect fit for Project Boom. 

Khushbu Patel is an Avionics hardware in the loop engineer at Relativity Space. Graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace, Ms. Patel worked with some of the coolest new aerospace startups like Virgin Orbit and Relativity space. The team is excited to have Ms.Patel’s advisement.

Rob was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug early in his career while working at AudioNet, which later became Broadcast.com, a Mark Cuban venture. Since the late ’90s, he has been building and delivering online services and data-centers for media, banking, advertising, and content platforms. He is passionate about technology, large-scale, the customer experience–and his Atari 2600. When not playing his Atari, Rob also had time to earn five utility patents.

Steve Fendley is the President of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, KUSD, which includes the Kratos companies Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems. Microsystems, Kratos Technical Directions, Kratos Australia, and 5-D Systems. He has over 25 years of experience focused on development of unmanned and optionally-piloted aerial systems; both aerial targets and the more conventional UAVs. Over his career, his defense industry roles have spanned electrical/systems engineering, engineering management, program management, and executive management for Westinghouse, Tracor, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, 5-D Systems, and CEi/Kratos. His efforts have supported the QF-4 FSAT, MQM-107E SSAT, Kalkara (Australian 107E), Taiwan 107E, 5GAT, AFSAT, Navy SSAT, Firejet, UTAP-22 Mako, XQ-58A and several UAS development systems. Mr. Fendley has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from Auburn University.