UCI
Aero Design
THE TEAM
The Students Behind The Aircraft
Aero Design is led by student engineers and operators who turn ideas into a competition-ready aircraft. Our leaders coordinate design, manufacturing, testing, logistics, and outreach across every stage of the build season.
Meet the team leaders guiding Zot Force One and the next generation of UCI aircraft.
Contact The Team
Organization Chart
2026-2027 Team Structure
Program
Project Manager
Andrew Zhang
Advisor
Professor Larue
Technical Advisor
Colin Sledge
Chief Engineers
Structures & Manufacturing Chief Engineer
Samith Varamballi
Aerodynamics Chief Engineer
Jibin Jiju
Subteam Leads
Structures W&T Lead
Zachary Vogelsang
Structures F Lead
Sophia Vieira
Manufacturing Lead
Eva Maya
Propulsion & Avionics Leads
Sean Pelletier
Alexey Elaev
Aerodynamics Lead
Caden Chang
Operations Lead
Ani Lim
Engineering & Operations Teams
Structures F Engineers
Preston Hariadi
Elina Nazhadi
Samantha Esparza
Abhinaav Balaji
Structures W&T Engineers
Athaliah Franklin
Kaireese Monroy
Ricardo Vera
Ethan Lee
Manufacturing Engineers
Smaran Mishra
Mina Salib
Katie Lien
Shishir Subramanya
P&A Engineers
Likhith Bollam
Lingbo Wan
Brennan Dupart
Aerodynamics Engineers
Brian Chen
Anan Bagdi
Anay Kamboj
Ella Delgado
Austin Hsu
Marcus Perry
Haris Asic
Operations & Outreach
Leon Li
Haley Lam
Adani Ahmad
Zhiyuan Rong
Annie Dinh
Team Archive
2025-2026 Team Structure
View archived team
Team Archive
2025-2026 Team Structure
Program
Project Manager
Stuti Patel
Chief Engineers & Operations
Structures & Manufacturing Chief Engineer
Darren Lam
Aerodynamics Chief Engineer
Bryce Mankovsky
Propulsion & Avionics Co-Leads
Francis Hoang
Matthew Madrid
Creative Director/Operations
Maeve Fishman
Subteam Leads
Structures W&T Lead
Berenice Santos
Structures F Lead
Hudson Wheeler
Manufacturing Lead
Daniel Aguilera
Aerodynamics Lead
Andrew Zhang
Engineering & Operations Teams
Structures W&T Engineers
Aiden Banan
John Mai
Zachary Vogelsang
Samith Varamballi
Athaliah Franklin
Structures F Engineers
Brian Chen
Sophia Vieira
Kaireese Monroy
Preston Hariadi
Manufacturing Engineers
Nishali Desai
Smaran Mishra
Mina Salib
Eve Wang
Eva Maya
Aerodynamics Engineers
Jibin Jiju
Addison Rushing
Tejas Kallu
Eno Jiang
Caden Chang
P&A Engineers
Nathan Kwock
Kaushik Saravanan
Alexey Elaev
Sean Pelletier
Operations/Outreach
Leon Li
Ani Lim
Colin Khoang
Daniel Chong
Elina Nazhadi
Leadership
2026-2027 Leads
Andrew Zhang
Project Manager
Samith Varamballi
Structures Chief Engineer
Jibin Jiju
Aerodynamics Chief Engineer
Ani Lim
Operations Lead
Caden Chang
Aerodynamics Lead
Eva Maya
Manufacturing Lead
Sean Pelletier
Propulsion & Avionics Co-Lead
Alexey Elaev
Propulsion & Avionics Co-Lead
Zachary Vogelsang
Structures Co-Lead
Sophia Vieira
Structures Co-Lead