David C. Hyland, currently Royce E. Wisenbaker Chair of Engineering, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Adjunct Professor of Physics, has been at Texas A&M University for 9 years. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dr. Hyland was awarded the S. B. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1969 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, also in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1971 and 1973, respectively. From September 1969 through July 1983, Dr. Hyland served at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, first was as Research Associate (until ’73), then as Staff Member. Beginning in August 1983, Dr. Hyland organized and subsequently led the Structural Control Group within the Government Aerospace Systems Division of Harris Corporation. He has served as Principal Investigator and Chief Scientist for numerous research programs for NASA and AFOSR. In February 1992, Dr. Hyland was promoted to Senior Scientist and assigned to the Senior Staff of the Vice President of Engineering of the Aerospace Systems Division Dr. Hyland joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on May 1, 1996 and served as Full Professor with tenure and Chairman of the Aerospace Engineering Department until September 1, 2003. He joined Texas A&M University in 2003 as Associate Vice Chancellor of Engineering, Associate Dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering, holder of the Wisenbaker Chair of Engineering, Professor of Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering and Professor of Physics in the College of Science. For the last seven years, Dr. Hyland accepted appointment as Director of Space Science and Space Engineering Research along with the current positions named above. Dr. Hyland’s current interests include adaptive control for space vehicles, formation flying control algorithms for optimal image quality, novel distributed aperture imaging systems, and above all, the seamless combination of undergraduate education with advanced research.

Richard W. Longman, received his Ph.D. from University of California, San Diego, 1969. He specializes in dynamics and control including learning, repetitive, and optimal control theory and applications. Other areas of interest include system identification, robotics in space, and satellite altitude and shape control.

Jake Szatkowski is part of Advanced Programs as project manager for Technology Flight Demonstrations and SmallSat accommodations on Atlas and Delta launch vehicles for United Launch Alliance. In this capacity, Szatkowski is working numerous Small Satellite projects supporting the USAF, NASA, and foreign governments for LEO, GSO, Lunar, NEOs and MARS missions. Szatkowski earned 5 degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. And has 37 yrs service on the EELV program.

V. Utkin graduated from Moscow Power Institute (Dipl. Eng.) and received a Ph.D. from the Institute of Control Sciences (Moscow, Russia). He was with the Institute of Control Sciences since 1960, and was Head of the Discontinuous Control Systems Laboratory from 1973 to 1994. He was Ford Chair of Electromechanical Systems from 1994 to 2002 at the Ohio State University. Prof. Utkin is one of the originators of the concepts of Variable Structure Systems and Sliding Mode Control. He is an author of five books and more than 300 technical papers. In 1975-1978 he was in charge of an international project between his Institute and "Energoinvest", Sarajevo, on the sliding mode control of induction motors. He has worked on the control of D.C., induction, and synchronous drives using sliding mode techniques in metal-cutting machine tools, process control and electric cars. His current research interests are the control of infinite-dimensional plants (including flexible manipulators), sliding modes in discrete time systems, microprocessor implementation of sliding mode control, control of electric drives, alternators and power converters, robotics and motion control.

Weidong Zhu is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the founder and director of its Dynamic Systems and Vibrations Laboratory and Laser Vibrometry Laboratory. He received his double major BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computational Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1986, and his MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and the University of California at Berkeley in 1988 and 1994, respectively. He is a recipient of the 2003 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2007 American Society for Nondestructive Testing Fellowship Award, the 2008 ChangJiang Scholar Chair Professorship in General Mechanics from the Ministry of Education of China, and the 2009 Daily Record's Maryland Innovator of the Year Award. He is a Fellow of ASME and an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics. His research spans the fields of dynamics, vibration, control, applied mechanics, structural health monitoring, and wind energy, and involves analytical development, numerical simulation, experimental validation, and industrial application.

Shaaban Abdallah, a professor of Aerospace Engineering, has been at the university of Cincinnati since 1989. He obtained his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the university of Cincinnati in 1980. Dr. Abdallah joined Penn State University from 1981 to 1988. His research interests include Computational Fluid Dynamics, nano fluids, Turbo-machines, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Medical devices. Dr. Abdallah has two US patents on centrifugal compressors and three disclosures with university of Cincinnati on medical devices.

Yongsheng Ma is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta (U of A), Canada. He joined U of A in 2007. Before that, Dr. Ma had been with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, since 2000. From 1993 to 2000, Dr. Ma was with Ngee Ann Polytechnic and then the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech). Dr. Ma received his B. Eng. from Tsing Hua University (1986), and both MSc and PhD degrees from Manchester University, UK (1990 and 1994). His main research areas include CADCAM, engineering informatics, feature-based product and process modelling, and product lifecycle management (PLM).

Gaurav Pandey is Visiting Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, USA. Pandey was awarded a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 2013 and a B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur in 2009. Dr. Pandey’s PhD research on smart composites has resulted in a joint industrial patent application and several journal publications. At Lafayette College, Dr. Pandey is teaching courses in manufacturing, design and mechanics. His present research focus is on composites and sensors.

Dimitris Drikakis is the Head of the Department of Engineering Physics and Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Computational Science at Cranfield University, UK. He is a William Penney Fellow of the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). Professor Drikakis is a member of the Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology; Chartered Engineer; Life Member of the American Physical Society; Life Senior-Member of AIAA; and Member of ASME. He is an Associate Editor of The Aeronautical Journal, ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering (2004-2012), Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, International Journal of Aviation Technology, Engineering and Management; and member of editorial boards in 12 technical journals. Professor Drikakis has served as an evaluator on several funding bodies in the UK and abroad, including UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; European Research Council; European Union; Finnish Academy of Science; Scientific Research Council (Belgium); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Qatar National Research Fund; National Council for Research and Development (Romania), Leverhulme & Nuffield Foundations (UK).

Flight Physics, fluid mechanics and thermal analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Materials, Shock Physics, Computational Science, Nanotechnology, and High-performance computing with applications to: Aerospace & Defence, Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering, Energy & Environment, Security, and Biotechnology

Elzbieta Jarzebowska is currently a professor at the Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics at the Power and Aeronautical Engineering Department, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland. She received the B.S., M.S., Ph.D., and D.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering, control and mechanics of constrained systems, from the Warsaw University of Technology. Her fields of research expertise and teaching include dynamics modeling and analysis of multibody systems, nonlinear control of multibody systems including nonholonomic, under actuated, UAV, and mobile robotic systems, and geometric control theory. Prof. Jarzębowska was involved in research projects for Automotive Research Centre and Engineering Research Centre for Reconfigurable Machining Systems at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Also, she gained valuable experience when worked for Ford Motor Company Research Laboratories, Dearborn, MI. She is the author and coauthor of five handbooks and a monograph in mechanics and control, and more than 100 publications. She is a member of ASME, IEEE, GAMM, IFToMM Technical Committee of Mechatronics, and International Society for Advanced Research – Italy based society and a scientific publisher.

M. Serdar Genc is an Associate Professor in the Department of Energy Systems Engineering at Erciyes University. He has completed his Ph.D. from Erciyes University and postdoctoral studies from University Bath. He is Vice Chairman of the Department of Energy Systems Engineering. His research interests include experimental fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics of low Reynolds number flows, transition and turbulence modeling, flow control, micro air vehicles, wind energy and meteorology. He has published more than 50 publications such as book, book chapters and journal and conference papers and serving as an editorial board member.

Omid Gohardani holds a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from Cranfield University, United Kingdom and dual Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona, United States and Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, following a visiting scholar position at the University of Florida, Florida, United States.He is a United States Wakonse teaching fellow, holds more than 15 national/international scholarships/awards and speaks six different languages fluently. He currently serves as a reviewer and editorial board member of several scientific journals and as a judge for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student contests. In 2008, Dr. Gohardani was bestowed the title Honorary Citizen of Tucson, Arizona, United States and upon completion of a distinctive teaching program in Learner-Centered Education, awarded a College Teaching Certificate from the University of Arizona (summa cum laude).

Hocine Alla has completed his Ph.D. from University of Sciences and Technology of Oran in 2006 and has published several papers in reputed journals.