The sky used to be man’s referenced limit but not anymore. With s in technology, the sky seem to be a vision to conquer. The interesting part about this is, no gender is excluded. In recent decades, we have seen rigorous clamour for more women participation in man’s drive to conquer the universe. To challenge the perceived statuesque, feminism was birthed and increased the clamour for women participation. According to Cheris kramarae, ‘feminism is the radical notion that women are humans.’ To Brigham Young, ‘You educate a man, you educate a man. You educate a woman, you educate a generation.’ This movement has seen more woman get involved in man’s advancement and their impact in human development is more recognized and appreciated by all. A lot of women are making tremendous strides in their niche worth mentioning but we’ll take a look at Dr. Wendy Okolo.
With little known about her early childhood, Wendy Okolo was born into a family of six. Upon completing her primary education at Queens College in Lagos, Nigeria, she travelled to the United States of America where she received her BSc and PhD degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas in 2010 and 2015 respectively. At age 26, she became the first black woman to be awarded a PhD in aerospace engineering. This great achievement of hers has become a motivation for many other women to pick up interest in aerospace engineering.
Her academic prowess was recognized after she was able to work with a team that flew the world fastest manned aircraft at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright Patterson Air force base. Upon graduation, Dr. Wendy Okolo began to work as an aerospace research person at the Ames Research centre, which is a major NASA research centre in California’s Silicon Valley. Walking the talk, she has become an encouragement to the women who desires to pursue their dreams in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Dr. Okolo works as a special emphasis programs manager in the Intelligent Systems Division of the Ames Research Center. Currently, she leads work on a System-Wide Safety (SWS) project, and a Space Technology Mission Directorate Early Career Initiative (STMD-ECI) project. The sole aim of the SWS project involves predicting GPS faults in unmanned aerial systems commonly known as drones while her work in STMD-ECI project aims to develop unconventional control techniques for deployable vehicles, to enable precision landing and improve manoeuvrability during the entry, descent, and landing phases of spaceflight.
Due to her work ethic and academic prospect, Dr. Okolo has been a recipient of numerous awards and recognition in recent years. Some of these awards include; Black engineer of the year (BEYA) for most promising engineer in government (2019), NASA Ames superior accomplishment award (2018), NASA Ames innovation fair winner (2018), NASA Ames honour award (2018), NASA space technology mission directorate (STMD) early career initiative award (2017) amongst others. She’s also a member of various Professional bodies which include; American institute of Aeronautics and astronautics, Prognostics and health management society, Society of women engineers to name a few.
Some of her renowned publications include;
- Okolo, W., Margolis, B., Barton, J., Nikaido, B., Zane, H., Johnson, B., D’Souza, S., “Stability Analysis and Control Design for Lifting Nano ADEPT with Aerodynamic Control Surfaces”, Submitted to the 16th International Planetary Probe Workshop in Oxford UK, July 8 – 12, 2019
- Okolo, W., Dogan, A., and Blake, W., “Alternate Trimming Methods for Trailing Aircraft in Formation Flight”, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, v. 38, no. 10, October 2015, pp. 2018-2024, doi: http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2514/1.G000574
- Okolo, W., Dogan, A., and Blake, W., “Benefits of Formation Flight of Extended Duration Considering Fuel Burn”, AIAA paper 2015-2234, Proceedings of the AIAA Aviation Conference in Dallas, Texas, June 22-26, 2015. Best Graduate Student Technical Paper Award.
- Okolo, W., Dogan, A., and Blake, W., “A Modified Analysis of Alternate Lateral Trimming Methods for Flying Wing Aircraft at Sweet Spot in Formation Flight”, AIAA paper 2014-0543, Proceedings of the AIAA SciTech Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Jan. 13-17, 2014
- D’Souza, S., Okolo, W., Nikaido, B., Yount, B., Tran, J., Margolis B., Smith, B., Cassell A., Johnson, B., Hibbard, K., Barton, J., Hays, Z., “Developing an Entry Guidance and Control Design Capability using Flaps for the Lifting Nano-ADEPT”, Accepted to 2019 AIAA AVIATION Forum in Dallas, TX.
- Blake, W., Okolo, W., and Dogan, A., “Development of an Aerodynamic Model for a Delta-Wing Equivalent Model II (EQ-II) Aircraft”, AIAA paper 2015-0902, Proceedings of the AIAA SciTech Conference in Kissimmee, Florida, Jan. 5-9, 2015
This article was written for Fatherland Gazette by SOLA ALOGBA
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