MILLIE KRIEL

• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2018

• Texas A&M University, Electrical Engineering, '19

• Host Institution: Virgin Orbit

• Mentor: Jenn Gustetic

Millie is in her junior year majoring in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University. An event that sparked Millie’s interest in pursuing the space industry was visiting the Kennedy Space Center and watching a rocket launch. She knew then that she wanted to help design innovative technology necessary to further space exploration and development.

Millie is active in technical organizations and professional societies on campus and also enjoys scuba diving and cross-stitching. As a member of the Texas A&M Sounding Rocketry Team (SRT) on the Electronics and Payload sub-team, she is working to redesign the avionics to meet new specifications such as implementing a programmable real-time unit for data acquisition. Through her work for SRT, Millie is preparing herself for a future role in the aerospace industry by learning to think critically when making engineering decisions and gaining hands-on knowledge of flight-critical hardware. She is currently the Recruitment Chair for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). As Recruitment Chair, she initiated a mentorship program where upperclassmen work with underclassmen on analog and microcontroller projects. She is an advocate for diversity in STEM fields and previously served as the Society of Women Engineers Region C Conference Recruitment Chair. Millie had the opportunity to intern in Supply Chain for Ascend Performance Materials and most recently interned at NextEra Energy in the Power Generation department, working with wind turbine converter control systems.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Millie worked with Virgin Orbit in the Avionics Department and following graduation from Texas A&M, she will be working with Blue Origin.