Krissa E. Arn, 2Lt. USAF
Arn earned a B.S. in engineering mechanics from the United States Air Force Academy and has completed five years of service. Her early ambition and dream to study mechanical engineering at MIT was realized when she was accepted into the master’s degree program at MIT with the additional opportunity of becoming a Draper Fellow.

Arn loves building and racing her projects. At the Academy, she was part of a team of nine that designed, built, and raced a dune buggy vehicle for the SAE Mini Baja Competition. She has built many bikes and spent much of her time at the Academy racing on the mountain bike and cycling teams. She also worked one summer at Tyndall AFB in the AFRL Robotics Lab to further develop and modify the Prairie Dog Robot.

She has focused her studies in the product design field and for her master’s thesis is working on the development of a non-contact vibration measurement and analysis system for electronic board testing. The physical contact of common vibration measurement sensors can alter the structure’s in-situ properties. Her thesis is exploring a non-contact method of measuring vibration response.

Arn will continue military service as a Project Engineer and plans to marry a USAF pilot upon completion of the S.M. degree. In the future she is interested in working for a product design firm.

David Benson
With a B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Benson has a strong academic background, having worked as a laboratory assistant at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy while an undergraduate and as a teaching assistant for three courses-aerodynamics and thermodynamics, orbital mechanics, and attitude determination-during his graduate program. His master’s degree work was focused on controls; he conducted research on periodic control systems for wind turbines.

Benson’s current academic focus is on controls. With an emphasis in optimal control and numerical methods, he is researching numerical methods for solving optimal control problems in integral form. The new method finds a better numerical approximation to the optimal control problem, which then can be used for improved trajectory optimization.

Benson is interested in research in optimal control of non-linear systems in the field of aerospace engineering. Future plans include working in control or trajectory optimization for satellites and spacecraft.

Tiffany Lapp
With a B.S. in aero/astro engineering from the University of Washington and a focus in control law design and analysis, Lapp was one of three elected leads of her senior aero design class, and lead of the wind tunnel test program for the senior design UAV. She spent three years at the Kirsten Wind Tunnel, part of the University of Washington’s Aeronautical Laboratories, testing a variety of vehicles and serving as crew chief for 1.5 years. Two years at Boeing Commercial followed, where she contributed to control law development and engage logic design for the 737NG autopilot, including flight testing for performance evaluation and certification. She is a member of AIAA.

Her research at Draper encompasses real-time outer-loop control of low-altitude, high-speed flight and the necessary terrain following and obstacle avoidance that goes along with that mission objective. She also is investigating stability and feasibility guarantees as part of her thesis.

Lapp is considering a Ph.D. and possibly a career in research. In addition to her fascination with airplanes and flight, she is interested in bio-engineering and in exploring how her experience in controls might lead to work in the control of biological systems.

Jillian A. Redfern
Redfern earned a B.S. in applied mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she was one of the premier Norlin Scholars, which is an undergraduate education program aimed at highly motivated students with strong academic or creative abilities. She was on the dean’s list in 1997-1999. While an undergraduate, she tested a new grating drive design aboard NASA’s Weightless Wonder, then ran an education outreach program for elementary and middle school students based upon the experience. She also served as president and treasurer of the university’s chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Redfern is interested in AI and its applications to space exploration. Her research at Draper encompasses utilizing artificial intelligence to perform fault diagnosis for the Orbital Express mission. She is also being advised by Brian Williams at MIT’s Space Systems Laboratory. She is extending his work in the realm of the Orbital Express mission.

Looking ahead, she would like the opportunity to work with emerging space technologies in the exploration of the solar system, utilizing her scientific background and MIT engineering education.

Luke M. Sauter, 2Lt. USAF
A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a B.S. in astronautical engineering, Sauter graduated with distinctions in military, academic, and physical performance, and he was the top graduate in aeronautical engineering in his class. He served as chief engineer for the Academy’s FalconSat Program 2001-02, and he was a member of the Academy’s Flying Team 1998-99.

During his five-year military career, he was ranked first in his squadron and received the Top Gun award for leadership. He wrote and presented papers at AIAA and IEEE conferences on Mars surface communications, the Academy’s FalconSat program, and microsatellite design. From 1999 to 2001, he also volunteered as a Big Brother in the Air Force Academy chapter of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

As a summer research fellow at JPL in 2001, Sauter helped engineers resolve communication-timing concerns with the 2003 Mars exploration rovers and other Mars missions.

His research at Draper encompasses satellite constellation design for the interception of ballistic missiles. He also has provided research assistance on the SPIDR program. Upon completion of his stint as a Draper Fellow next May, Sauter will be directly involved with acquisition programs and management for the U.S. Air Force.