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.