ANYA USTINOVA

• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2018

• University of California San Diego, Aerospace Engineering, '18

• Host Institution: Stealth Space Company

• Mentor: Dava Newman

Anya Ustinova attended University of California, San Diego studying Aerospace Engineering. She immigrated to the United States in 2011. Originally from Volgograd, Russia she spent most of her childhood at her grandpa’s machine shop watching him fix cars and playing with his tools, which inspired her to pursue an engineering career.

Anya is a first-generation college student pursuing her dream to become an accomplished engineer and be the first one in her family to ever finish college. Before enrolling in UCSD Anya studied at a community college in Sacramento and was involved in numerous organizations focused on outreach to middle school children educating them on wonderful and accessible world of engineering.

At UCSD, she has served as a Mechanical Systems Engineer and a Structures Team Lead for Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). She was heavily involved in NASA’s CubeQuest Challenge in designing a 6U Cubic Satellite with propellant feed system, powered by a monopropellant engine. Anya also served as a Team Lead member on a project for Society of Women Engineers at UCSD and numerous outreach activities through her work with Alumni. She also started an “Undergraduate Female Engineering Leadership Initiative” focused on giving young engineering women tools to succeed in their first years in the engineering industry.

Anya has officially become a US citizen on the 20th of December of 2017 and is looking forward to getting involved in aerospace-focused projects in the industry. She is determined to one day become a CEO of her own company. 

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Anya worked on the propulsion team at Stealth Space Company in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is now a Responsible Engineer for the First Stage Rocket engine at Virgin Orbit.