Executive Board

James Dodson

President

James is an undergraduate aerospace engineering student and the current President and Propulsion Lead. He’s spent the last few years designing and testing liquid propellant rocket engines for SEDS, including designing the regen-cooled thrust-chamber and testing Nephas, Moonshine, and ongoing work on the next round of engines and turbomachinery. He also leads the Vesper rocket, helping define feed-system architecture and leading the team through building and testing the club's most recent vehicle.
As President, James is focused on keeping projects moving, getting hardware finished, and advancing collegiate liquid-propellant rocketry. Outside the club, he’s usually taking photos or watching movies, and he’s held propulsion and test roles at Masten, Astrobotic, and SpaceX.

Sophia Zhou

Vice President of Operations

Sophia is a 2nd-year Electrical Engineering student with an interdisciplinary focus in liquid propulsion systems design. She joined SEDS as a propulsion engineer, where she led the overall design of the isopropyl alcohol rocket Martini and further pursued turbopump development for next-generation vehicles. In her current role as Vice President of Operations, Sophia supports ongoing efforts in operational safety and subsystem integration across the Riptide, Halya, and Vesper vehicles for all test and launch campaigns. She also mentors through the SEDSxFEMxTR program, helping to build a culture of technical confidence, audacious ambition, and shared support among highly driven emerging engineers.

Trevor Krumrey

Vice President of Engineering

Trevor is a third year aerospace engineering student. When he joined SEDS on the Halya  structures team, he owned design, analysis, and manufacturing of multiple structural components. In his second year, he focused on development of composite manufacturing process development for multiple components of Halya’s aeroshell. In his third year he is now helping lead SEDS, coordinating project teams, organizing tools and resources for members, and facilitating relationships with university and industry partners. Outside of SEDS, Trevor has interned at Scaled Power, working on combustion and test systems for gas turbine combustors. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing, hiking, photography, and working on personal engineering projects like cars, computers, and drones.

Emma Huang

Director of Electrical Engineering

Emma is a 3rd-year Electrical Engineering student. She joined the Rocket Lander Testbed team as a member of the avionics team and as a member of SEDSxFEMxTR. She has a strong focus on electrical hardware and facilitated the development of the avionics module from design to manufacturing. She has learned and applied relevant skills interning at two startups working on PCB design. As Director of Electrical, Emma hopes to foster more collaboration between the avionics and controls teams of SEDS many projects in the coming year. Alongside SEDS, Emma conducts research in the Advanced Robotics Controls Laboratory, where she writes code that make robots move.

Justin Othman

Director of Internal Affairs

Justin is a 3rd-year Structural Engineering student specializing in aerospace structures.  He joined SEDS as a structures engineer for the self-landing rocket Lander, where he begin to work on the manufacturing and the assembly of the structural systems (body modules and thrust structure). He then proceeded to start leading the manufacturing of the landing legs through the MAE machine shop and designed structural mounts that allowed other systems to be integrated into the overall structure. Now, alongside Director of Internal Affairs he designs and manufactures mounts that will be used for the upcoming Lander cold flow that will allow the 17 ft tall, 1.5 ft diameter rocket to be mounted safely to a static stand at FAR.

Metztli Soriano

Director of External Affairs

Metztli is a 3rd year undergraduate majoring in Physics with specialization in Astrophysics and minoring in Mechanics of Engineering. Metztli is part of the Hayla project on the structures sub-team, and has been working on designing, manufacturing, testing, integrating and validating the recovery system for Hayla. Metztli hopes to successfully recover Hayla during it anticipated launch im Winter 2026. With her position as Director of External Affairs, she hopes to help keep SEDS at the forefront on collegiate rocketry and keep doing community outreach. Outside of SEDS, Metztli enjoys exploring San Diego & hiking by the beach.

Meghana Chittineni

Director of Business and Finance