Advanced Class
Malachi Drew
AERO ‘26
Chief Engineer
This will be Malachi’s third year on the team. He is serving as the Advanced Class Chief Engineer, having previously served as Advanced Class SMS Design Lead. Malachi is an aerospace engineering student interested in systems and flight test engineering. In his free time, Malachi enjoys Racquetball, Cooking, and working on his car.
Wayne Williams
AERO ‘26
SMS Product Owner
This is Wayne’s third year on SAE Aero and first as the Advanced Class SMS Product Owner. He is a senior aerospace engineering student interested in structural design and space systems engineering. In his free time, Wayne likes to cook, spend time outdoors, and play sports with friends.
Gavin Paxton
AERO ‘26
ASC Product Owner
This will be Gavin’s second year on the team, and first year as the Advanced Class ASC Product Owner. Gavin is an aerospace engineering student interested in aerodynamics and CFD modeling for aircraft. In his free time, Gavin enjoys intramural sports, working out, and flying RC planes.
Kaden Siebrasse
AERO ‘26
ASC Product Owner
Kaden has been on the team for 2 years and this is his first as an Advanced SMS Class Design Lead. Kaden is a senior aerospace engineering student interested in the mechanical & structural design of aircraft. Outside of school and SAE, Kaden enjoys scuba diving, flying FPV, and exploring national parks.
Seth Johnson
AERO ‘25
AS Technical Advisor
This is Seth’s third year on the SAE Aero team, currently serving as the Advanced Class Autonomous Systems Technical Advisor. He previously served as the Advanced Class Autonomous Systems Design Lead and as a Micro Class ASC member. Seth is a senior Aerospace Engineering student and a researcher with the Vehicle Systems and Control Laboratory, where he focuses on multi-agent coordination, high-fidelity simulation, and autonomous systems software architecture. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking and watching movies.
Isaac Nikolayev
AERO ‘28
Aidan Chan
AERO ‘27
ASC Design Lead
This will be Aidan’s second year on the team and first year as the Advanced Class ASC Design Lead. Aidan is an Aerospace Engineering major interested in airframe and aerodynamics design and testing. In his free time, he likes to play violin, game and model building.
Laura Escamilla
MATH ‘26
AS Lead
This is Laura’s third year on the team and is currently serving as the Advanced Class Autonomous System Lead. She is a senior in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science. She enjoys the challenge of flight testing, where experiments in code become real-world experience. Outside of her technical work, Laura finds balance by playing pickle ball and piano in her free time.
Dan Astraquillo
ELEN ‘28
Jack Rahm
MXET ‘25
Sattendra Gopinath
MEEN ‘29
Jakob Guerra
MEEN ‘26
Girish Sundaresan
MEEN ‘26
Alejandro Senties Gutierrez
ENGR ‘28
Caden Gerhart
MEEN ‘27
Keshav Srinivasan
ENGR ‘27
Juan Aldapa
ENGR ‘28
Ishaan Bansal
AERO ‘28
Michael Shehan
AERO ‘29
Cooper Murphy
AERO ‘26
Jayden Szeto
PETE ‘26
Neil Shoemaker
AERO ‘28
David Escobedo
BMEN ‘28
Regular Class Officers
Edward Eiche
AERO ‘26
Chief Engineer
This will be Edward’s fourth year on the team. He is serving as Regular Class Chief Engineer and previously served as SMS Design Lead for Regular Class. Edward is fascinated by the application of novel structures and materials to solve challenging aerodynamic and propulsive problems.. When he escapes campus, Edward delves deep into caves across the country (both recreational and project), plays tennis and trombone, and travels around the world on backpacking trips as often as possible.
Dylan Alexander
AERO ‘26
ASC Design Lead
This will be Dylan’s fourth year on the team and first year as the Regular Class ASC Design Lead. Dylan is an Aerospace Engineering major interested in flight controls and handling qualities for aircraft. In his free time he likes to watch sports and hangout with friends.
JD Kollar
AERO ‘27
ASC Product Owner
This will be JD’s 3rd year on the team. He is currently serving as the Regular Class ASC Design Lead. He is a Junior in aerospace engineering. In his free time JD enjoys flying RC aircraft, gaming with his friends, watching movies, and traveling the national parks.
Christopher Valle
AERO ‘26
SMS Product Owner
This is Chris’ second year on SAE Aero and first as the Regular class SMS Product Owner. Chris is an aerospace engineering student interested in finite element modeling, systems engineering, and 3d modeling. Outside of SAE he enjoys motorcycles, guitar, and tennis.
Theresia Heimer
ITDE ‘26
SMS Design Lead
This will be Theresia’s second year on SAE Aero and first year as the Regular Class SMS Design Lead. Theresia is an Interdisciplinary Engineering student taking Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering classes who is interested in designing for manufacturability, so structures can be built and tested as designed. Outside of school and SAE, she enjoys skiing, fantasy football, gaming, and spending time with her two kittens.
Regular Class
Aerodynamics, Stability, and Controls (ASC)
Vedant Bhat
MXET ‘27
Karthik Jayakumar
AERO ‘27
Aakash Chowdhury
AERO ‘26
Sean Garner
AERO ‘26
Sushant Chada
AERO ‘28
Jacob Bustamante
AERO ‘26
Mihir Ghawghawe
AERO ‘25
Ryan Peters
ENGR ‘29
Harrison Harding
AERO ‘26
Landon Coutee
MEEN ‘28
Nikhil Modak
AERO ‘28
Structures and Materials Science (SMS)
Gaurav Bharatha
MEEN ‘25
William Rohren
MEEN ‘26
Finley Johnson
AERO ‘26
Kathryn Carter
MEEN ‘25
Andy Wang
MEEN ‘28
Abby Wooten
AERO ‘28
Stephen Diep
ENGR ‘29
Dane Koluch
MEEN ‘26
Daniel Karun
AERO ‘26
Marco Robles
ENGR ‘29
Luis Albos
MXET ‘26
Lauren Scott
ENGR ‘28
Riley Falls
AERO ‘27
Avery Brown
AERO ‘26
Micro Class Officers
Dhruval Rangrej
MEEN ‘26
Chief Engineer
This will be Dhruval's third year on the team. He is serving as Micro Class Chief Engineer and previously served as SMS Design Lead for Micro Class. Dhruval is a mechanical engineering student interested in structural design and simulations for aircraft. While not doing school or SAE, Dhruval enjoys playing jazz on his saxophone, playing golf/pickleball with friends, and watching movies.
Nathan Barton
AERO ‘26
ASC Product Owner
This is Nathan’s third year on the team. He is serving as the Micro ASC Product Owner. He is a senior aerospace engineering student, and is interested in aerodynamics, space mission design, and systems design.
Camden Maddoxx
AERO '26
SMS Product Owner
This will be Camden’s second year on the team, and first year as the Micro Class SMS Product Owner. Camden is an aerospace engineering student interested in structural design and dynamics for aircraft. In his free time he likes playing sports, flying FPV drones, and hiking.
Brendan Greenly
AERO ‘26
ASC Design Lead
This year will be Brendan’s second year on SAE Aero and first year as the Micro Class ASC Design Lead. Brendan is an aerospace engineering student interested in aircraft design and high speed flows. Outside of school, he enjoys working out, gaming, and hanging out with friends.
Eduardo Burciaga-Ichikawa
AERO ‘27
SMS Design Lead
This is Eduardo’s second year on SAE Aero and first as the Micro class SMS Design Lead. He is an aerospace engineering student interested in manufacturing, structural analysis, and design. Outside of SAE, he enjoys running, hiking, and playing pickleball.
Micro Class Team Members
Aerodynamics, Stability, and Controls (ASC)
Quinton Walberg
AERO ‘27
Bryant Hoang
AERO ‘28
Robert Robbins
ENGR ‘29
Ashwin Viswanath
AERO ‘27
Omkar Magi
AERO ‘27
Pranav Rajkumar
AERO ‘27
Vedaant Patil
AERO ‘27
Jason Fryar
ENGR ‘29
Leo Nordell
MXET ‘28
Malina Nesian
AERO ‘26
Structures and Materials Science (SMS)
Cameron Cervenka
ENGR ‘28
Cameron Krzmarzick
AERO ‘27
Heneni Dong
MEEN ‘28
Theodore Nemeth
MEEN ‘27
Natalia Nguyen
ENGR ‘28
Ethan Holmberg
AERO ‘27
Julian Lopez
AERO ‘27
Samuel Thomas
ENGR ‘29
Directors
Malachi Drew
Co - Director
Business Team
Justin Tolin
Director
Mason Viergutz
Shop Manager
Karina Fung
BHNR ‘29
Kelsey Strohmeyer
SCMT ‘27
Ben Zhu
ID ‘27
Dhruval Rangrej
Co-Director
Edward Eiche
Co-Director
Adam Erian
ID ‘27
David Alfonzo
ENGR ‘29
Our Advisors
Dr. John Valasek
Faculty Advisor
Dr. John Valasek is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he directs the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory. His research focuses on autonomous systems, air vehicle control, and vision-based navigation. A Fellow of the AIAA, he has earned numerous awards for teaching, research, and service, and holds leadership roles in FAA and NSF research centers on air mobility and general aviation.
Scott McHarg
Pilot
My name is Scott McHarg and I am an Advisor for the Texas A&M SAE AERO Design team. I have been an advisor for the team now for 5 years. I have also had the honor to serve as the team pilot for the past 3 years and developmental pilot for the past 10 years. I’ve been flying R/C airplanes for over 33 years now and have flown everything there is to fly over the course of my career. I’ve been flying commercially for private entities and the military for about 30 years now beginning with the RQ2 Pioneer UAV. I have almost 13,000 hours of mission time and my current passion is turbine jet aerobatics.
There’s nothing that I haven’t seen over the years that is until I became an advisor for this amazing team. The designs, iterations, and final concepts that this team produces amaze me more each year. The cohesiveness of this group is unlike anything I’ve been part of. I’m truly honored and blessed to be involved with these students and can’t wait to head back to the competition.