• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2025

• Illinois Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering, ‘26

• Host Institution: Hermeus

• Mentor: TBD

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Han is now a Senior studying Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. Ever since she was a kid, Han has been interested in planets and galaxies. She spent most of her time reading about different planets and constellations.

At Illinois Tech, Han is currently the R&D Lead of Illinois Tech Rocketry, an interdisciplinary team dedicated to launching high-altitude dual-stage rocket. Within 1.5 years, her team has successfully launched and recovered four different dual-stage rockets. Last December, her team traveled to Mojave, CA to launch Big Red 2, their fourth dual-stage rocket.

She also supports the design and testing of custom flight computers where she is responsible for integrating data from multiple sensors to provide accurate data on the vehicle’s location, attitude, and velocity.

Han also spent her first two years leading Scarlet Spacehawks, a robotics team at Illinois Tech, to design and build an autonomous mining rover for NASA RMC Lunabotics. Aside from that, she also coordinated with local schools and organizations to host outreach events for K-12 students with hands-on activities like Arduino rover building or paper rockets. Through community outreach, she hoped to encourage students’ involvement in STEM and provide them educational resources to succeed in college.

With a passion for space exploration, Han looks forward to working in spacecraft assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO), focusing on telecommunication systems. She hopes to support future interplanetary missions, and mission planning for satellites, space instruments.

In her free time, Han enjoys drawing, watching historical documentaries, and playing piano. She also loves visiting her family in Vietnam, exploring more landmarks, and enjoying street foods!

This summer, Han is excited to join Hermeus in Atlanta, GA as the Avionics Engineering Intern, supporting the development of avionics hardware for hypersonic aircraft!