• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2017

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aerospace Engineering ‘19

• Host Institution: The Aerospace Corporation

• Mentor: Aschley Schiller

Katie Carroll is a graduate student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at MIT. She conducts research with Prof. Olivier de Weck on agent-based modeling and simulation of complex sociotechnical systems in the Engineering Systems Lab. At MIT, Katie has also served as the co-president of the Graduate Women in Aerospace Engineering group and is actively involved in mentorship and outreach programs to promote female involvement in STEM.

Katie graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, she was heavily involved with student groups like the Illinois Space Society and Women in Aerospace. During Katie’s senior year, she led a technical project team to design, build, and test a Micrometeoroid Impact Detection and Suppression (MIDAS) tool as part of the NASA Micro-g NExT sharp edge detection and covering challenge. The MIDAS device also won the Hans von Muldau Team Award at the International Astronautical Congress 2019.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Katie interned at The Aerospace Corporation in the Systems Integration and Test Office on multiple projects with the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. She also has past internships at NASA JPL on the Europa Clipper mission, at SpaceX as a Customer Operations and Integration Intern in the Government Mission Management group, and at Blue Origin as a graduate student intern on the New Shepard System Architecture team. Thrilled by the commercial sector of aerospace, Katie is excited to enter the aerospace industry full-time after completing her master’s degree at MIT.

Outside of classes and research, Katie enjoys playing tennis, hiking, skiing, music, and board games.