Monica Syal

I originally come from a small town in India where I grew up loving mathematics and science. I pursued that passion and became an aerospace engineer, joining my undergrad program in 2000. After working on a fighter aircraft program in India for about a year and a half, I came to the United States to pursue my graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. There, I studied helicopters and rotorcraft, completing both my Master's and PhD at the Rotorcraft Center of Excellence, working on simulations and speeding up those processes. After finishing my graduate studies, I got my first job in the Bay Area where I've been based ever since. I've spent about 10 years building new vehicles, specifically electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), working as an engineer through different technologically advanced stages of these programs. From there, I led organizations to actually build teams to develop these eVTOLs, which have now grown into multi-billion dollar companies. For the past 8 to 10 years, I've stepped into the world of unmanned aerial systems, where I've led flight sciences teams to design, build, deploy, and operate these vehicles. My work focuses on building the brain of these vehicles - the flight control software - and determining how to design and control them. Today, a typical day for me might involve speaking to a customer about their requirements for a new aircraft or vehicle, then interfacing with my team to take those milestones and requirements and form them into tangible deliverables, forming and guiding teams to execute on those goals.