Meet the Team
Detailed roster & member bios coming soon!
Michigan Vertical Flight Technology is a diverse multi-disciplinary team at the University of Michigan. Although we are associated directly with the College of Engineering, our members span multiple schools and areas of study spanning from graduates to undergraduates within the College of Engineering, College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences, and the Ross School of Business. Our many engineering majors include Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Materials Science & Engineering, and hopefully others soon!
Team Resume Books
Full-Team:
Co-Op / Internship
Sub-Team:
Avionics
Co-Op / Internship
Full-Time
Propulsion
Co-Op / Internship
Full-Time
Full-Time
Operations
Co-Op / Internship
Full-Time
Structures
Co-Op / Internship
Full-Time
Team Leads
President: Parker Trombley
Education: Junior - Major in Aerospace Engineering Minor in Computer Science
As President and Founder of Michigan Vertical Flight Technology, Parker is responsible for major administrative tasks, high level team vision, and overall aircraft technical design and sub-system integration.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Avionics Lead: Pedro Pascotto
Education: Junior - Major in Aerospace Engineering Minor in Computer Science
As the Avionics Subteam Lead, Pedro works to coordinate projects done by the subteam members. These projects include contributing to the ArduPilot control schemes to the eVTOL, accomplishing autonomous flight, and manufacturing a prototype to test control schemes and autonomous flight.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Operations Lead: Emily O'Connell
Education: Junior - Major in Aerospace Engineering
As Operations Lead, Emily is responsible for maintaining corporate relationships, team funding, and systems integration. She is interested in energy systems engineering, spacecraft system integration, and autonomy for UAVs. Outside of MVFT, she is the Mentorship Chair for Women in Aeronautics and Astronautics (WAA) and Secretary for Sigma Gamma Tau.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Power Systems Lead: Cole Dimich
Education: Senior - Major in Electrical Engineering
As Power Systems Lead, Cole focuses his time on designing and fabricating the power plants for our aircraft. He works closely with the Propulsion team to develop a fully integrated system that will optimize the efficiency of our designs. Beyond MVFT he is the President of the Michigan Waterski Team and enjoys self-started home automation projects.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Propulsion Lead: Brian Sandor
Education: Junior - Major in Aerospace Engineering Minor in Materials Science
As Propulsion Lead and Co-Founder of MVFT, Brian is responsible for leading the propulsion system configuration and design in each of our aircraft. He is interested in air-breathing propulsion systems, rotor-wing designs, and composites and enjoys building custom drones in his free time.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Structures Co-Lead (Aerodynamics): Alexander Cucos
Education: Senior - Major in Aerospace Engineering
Alex leverages his aerodynamic design and fluid dynamics experience to lead the aerodynamics side of our Structures sub-team. He is responsible for preliminary design, optimization, analysis, and work distribution to get our vehicles air-worthy and keep us on schedule.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Structures Co-Lead (Design): Keyen Yockey
Education: Junior - Major in Mechanical Engineering Minor in Computer Science
As co-lead of the structures sub-team, Keyen focuses on the design of internal load-bearing structures within MVFT projects and leads CAD tutorials, design for manufacturing, and structure optimization. He plans to pursue a Master's degree in robotics.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Outreach
MVFT is always looking for outreach opportunities with local schools and educational events such as the NSBE45 STEAMfest event at the Cobo Center in Detroit, MI where we displayed our demonstrator and talked to young students about what engineering and eVTOL really is. If you would like us to come speak at an event or other outreach opportunity, please do not hesitate to contact us!