With over 80 active members consisting of undergraduate and graduate students across engineering, the college, and Wharton, Penn AiR fosters a diverse community interested in pushing the boundaries of sustainable, autonomous aviation.
Leadership Team
President: Avaniko is a senior from Dallas, TX, studying Mechanical Engineering and Robotics. He is 6’6″ standing on his money (club dues).VP of Operations:Tina is a senior studying chemical engineering & mechanical engineering. She leads the mechanical wing/tail sub team. A dedicated Rubik’s Cube athlete, she now finds herself close to retirement—because the lingering glue from aircraft manufacturing makes solving a sticky challenge.Software Lead: Ethan is a senior studying CS, Math, Music, and Robotics. He leads the software team. Outside of PennAiR, Ethan enjoys hanging out with his friends.Mechanical Lead: Ajay is a junior in MEAM and ROBO. He loves Philly sports teams!Electrical Lead: Brandon is a junior from Manhasset, NY studying Electrical Engineering and Finance. This year, he leads the electrical team, ensuring electronics integration and testing across all planes, and is a member of the operations team. This summer, he will be utilizing AI/ML to create RF filters for various industries.VP of Finance: Gautam
Operations Team:
Tina is a senior studying chemical engineering & mechanical engineering. She is the VP of Sponsorships, and also leads the mechanical wing/tail sub team. A dedicated Rubik’s Cube athlete, she now finds herself close to retirement—because the lingering glue from aircraft manufacturing makes solving a sticky challenge.Avaniko is a senior from Dallas, TX, studying Mechanical Engineering and Robotics. He is 6’6″ standing on his money (club dues).Apurva is a freshman from Montville, NJ studying computer science. He is a member of the operations team and is responsible for running the website. He is a avid gamer and likes to play basketball with his friends.Jeremy is a sophomore from Potomac, MD studying Electrical Engineering. He serves as the Power and Thrust Management Electrical Subteam Lead and is also a member of the Operations team, in which he leads motor and propeller testing for flight performance and designs custom in-house testing devices. Outside of PennAiR, Jeremy is an avid tennis fan and spends his summers ballboying at a professional tennis tournament.David is a senior studying computer science. He is on the software team. He plays Minecraft.Tina is a freshman studying electrical engineering and is on Operations & Electrical. She hopes to fly a plane one day.Xiangyu is a senior from Grand Rapids, MI studying Mechanical Engineering & Robotics. He oversees all projects on the team but specializes in structural design. He’s also a Magic: the Gathering collector and has a full uncut production sheet hang up on his wall!Mingni is a sophomore from Baltimore, Maryland studying computer science and economics. She is a member of the operations team. She enjoys staying up all night instead of sleeping and blasting ABBA on the stair master.Alfred is a freshman from Philadelphia studying Mechanical Engineering. He is a member of the operations team. In his free time, he enjoys playing badminton and doing random side quests with friends. Brandonis a junior from Manhasset, NY studying Electrical Engineering and Finance. This year, he leads the electrical team, ensuring electronics integration and testing across all planes, and is a member of the operations team. This summer, he will be utilizing AI/ML to create RF filters for various industries.Sydney is a junior in Computer & Electrical Engineering on the electrical and operations subteams. She has been on the team since 2023 and attended in SAE Aero West in 2025. Her fun fact is she can sleep anywhere, anytime, and even won a team superlative for it.
Madison
Software team
Software Lead: Ethan is a senior studying CS, Math, Music, and Robotics. He leads the software team. Outside of PennAiR, Ethan enjoys hanging out with his friends.Vaughan is a graduate student studying Data Science and a member of the software team. His name has seven letters but only one syllable.David is a senior studying computer science. He is on the software team. He plays Minecraft.Jason is a CS major in SEAS and a member of the class of 2029. He’s a member of the software team. Outside of working he enjoys playing tennis and poker.Felicia is a freshman from the Republic of Moldova studying Mathematics and Computer Science. She is part of PennAir’s software team and is mainly working on vision algorithms for simulations. She used to know multiple languages in her prime but forgot all of them and now properly speaks none.Brian is a freshman from Seattle, WA studying AI. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, working out, and trying new food.Kevin is a sophomore in the software team who studies computer science. He enjoys drinking milk and climbing trees.Isha is a freshman from Rockaway, NJ studying Artificial Intelligence. In her free time, Isha loves exploring center city and trying different restaurants.Avaniko is a senior from Dallas, TX, studying Mechanical Engineering and Robotics. He is 6’6″ standing on his money (club dues).Michael is freshman from Potomac, MD on the Software team majoring in Computer Science in SEAS. He enjoys utilizing the intersection of technology, data, and machine learning to perform analysis on and identify patterns in the real world, with his favorite areas being specifically in the fields of medicine and basketball. His two shoulder dislocations and subsequent surgeries are what convinced him to go from player to analyst.Tianyi is a first-year master’s student in Robotics and a member of the software team. In her spare time, she enjoys discovering new restaurants, listening to music, doing sports, and traveling.Jonathan is a freshman from Newark, DE, studying Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the Software subteam and is interested in computer vision and controls. Outside of meetings, he loves photography, playing badminton, and overall, has a severe case of dillydallying.Pranav is a Freshman in SEAS majoring in AI and is interested in computer vision, robotics, and autonomous systems. He also loves card games and knows how to count cards in blackjack.Belle is a sophomore on the software team and is studying computer science. In their free time, Belle likes wrecking cars, going for late night swims, and throwing ragers in the Radian lounge. If you’re looking, you can find them anywhere from a late night lock in in AGH to snowboarding at Blue Mountain.Kaitian is a first year master student majoring in Robotics. He is a member of the software team and mainly responsible for the simulation system and also designing algorithms for vision and control. He has experiences in robots in the water (Robotic fish), on the ground (F1/10 auto-racing car), in the sky (Drones and our Penn Air planes), and also on the desk (Franka arm)! He travelled to Puerto Rico last winter and begun to learn some Spanish!YuzhiFrankieVincentYanqian
Yijie
Chris
Mechanical Team
Advanced Subteam Lead:Ayan is a junior studying Electrical Engineering (undergrad) and Robotics (masters). He is one of the Advanced Class Leads this year, and was the Fuselage lead last year. In his free time Ayan loves to play board games.Mechanical Lead:Ajay is a Junior in MEAM and ROBO. He loves Philly sports teams!Yinjie Wang is a MEAM senior on Wing/Tail subteam of Mechanical team. He gets sunburnt every time at comp.Hazem is a freshman from Egypt studying MechE. He’s on the mechanical team helping build the regular-class plane. He religiously maintains a playlist of his favorite 150 songs of all time (PLEASE ask for it).Arvino is a freshman from Belmont, MA studying Mechanical Engineering. He enjoys playing soccer and tennis.Jeet Bhatnagar is a freshman studying mechanical engineering on the Mechanical Micro Class team. He loves to play soccer and is a big Barca fan.Lincoln is a freshman on the mechanical sub-team studying mechanical engineering and finance in the M&T program. He’s very entrepreneurial and loves building, whether it’s a plane or a business. He’s also a competitive figure skater.Daniel Zhang is a first-year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the mechanical subteam. He’s passionate about combining research and design to create innovative engineering solutions. A fun fact about Daniel is that he loves to listen to music.Shiven Taneja is a first-year student studying Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) and Finance. He is a member of the Micro subteam. A fun fact about Shiven is that he loves playing squash in his free time.Connor Mundheim is a sophomore from Larchmont, NY studying mechanical engineering. He is one of the micro class leads and a member of the mechanical team and focused on the advanced class aircraft. He is a private pilot and flew a plane alone before he drove a car alone.Daniel is a freshman studying mechanical engineering. He participated in the Micro class internal competition, and is part of the Regular class fuselage design team, in addition to the Advanced class team. Once aspiring to be a product designer, he now dreams of joining Lockheed Martin and bombing his ops (in game).Stone is a Sophomore from the Philly Suburbs studying Mechanical Engineering. He is a member of the Fuselage team helping with CAD and constructing the plane.Kevin is a freshman studying materials science. He’s in the mechanical subteam, particularly working on the Micro Class plane. Apparently he’s excellent at GamePigeon Word Hunt and would love to play everyone!Suhani is a sophomore studying Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, with a minor in Mathematics. She currently works on fuselage for the mechanical subteam. In her free time, she loves making music and can play 3 instruments (piano, guitar, and drums).Tianhao is a Freshmen majoring in MEAM as part of the mechanical team. He loves flying fpv drones but crashed a lot.Connor is a junior studying mechanical engineering and doing an accelerated master’s in robotics. This is his third year as a member of Penn AiR and as part of the mechanical subteam. He is passionate about aerospace and aviation, and scratchbuilt his first R/C airplane in seventh grade.Sophia is a sophomore from Baton Rouge, LA studying mechanical engineering. She’s a part of the mechanical team, testing structural design for the fuselage subteam. She’s really good at knock-off candy crush and has played over 6000 levels.Omar Staniczai is a Mechanical Engineering Major in the class of 2029. He is a part of the Mechanical team and works on the micro-class and regular-class planes. He is always chasing the next sunrise and the perfect cup of coffee.Angelina is a second-year mechanical engineering student from Los Angeles, California. She is a member of the mechanical team and has helped design the fuselage of the regular class aircraft.Adam is a freshman from Mount Laurel, NJ, studying MEAM. With PennAir, he’s a mechanical member on their micro class team. He loves to golf, cook, bake, travel, and watch Philly sports (go birds!). In fact, he saw the Eagles win Super Bowl 52 in person back in 2018!Tina is a senior studying chemical engineering & mechanical engineering. She leads the mechanical wing/tail sub team. A dedicated Rubik’s Cube athlete, she now finds herself close to retirement—because the lingering glue from aircraft manufacturing makes solving a sticky challenge.JaddGautamOjani DarionWilliamSamhithaEndiLilyJonnah
ELECTRICAL Team
Electrical Lead: Brandon is a junior from Manhasset, NY studying Electrical Engineering and Finance. This year, he leads the electrical team, ensuring electronics integration and testing across all planes, and is a member of the operations team. This summer, he will be utilizing AI/ML to create RF filters for various industries.In Flight Sensors sub-team lead: Kristian is a junior from Philadelphia, PA, studying Computer Science. This year he is leading the In Flight Sensors sub-team. He owns more board games than he’d comfortably admit in public.Power and Thrust Management Electrical Subteam Lead: Jeremy is a sophomore from Potomac, MD studying Electrical Engineering. He serves as the Power and Thrust Management Electrical Subteam Lead and is also a member of the Operations team, in which he leads motor and propeller testing for flight performance and designs custom in-house testing devices. Outside of PennAiR, Jeremy is an avid tennis fan and spends his summers ballboying at a professional tennis tournament.Controls and Sensors Integration Lead: Jerry Zhang is a sophomore in electrical engineering (maybe submat?). He is on the electrical team and is the controls and sensors integration subteam lead. In his free time, he worries about life and plays spikeball to clear his head.Shefali is a freshman who is studying electrical engineering and is part of the electrical subteam. In particular, she works on the in-flight sensors team to design the system to measure, store, and transmit data regarding the plane’s flight. Aside from her love of things that fly (especially flying snakes), she enjoys drinking tea, encountering cats on daily walks, and playing video games.Mohit is a junior from South Brunswick, NJ studying Computer Engineering and Robotics. He is a member of the Electrical team and focuses on ESC testing and sensor design. He loves to hike and travel, his favorite being the canyon trails of Zion National Park.Tina is a freshman studying electrical engineering and is on Operations & Electrical. She hopes to fly a plane one day.Aditya is a sophomore from Philadelphia, PA studying Bioengineering. He is a member of the Electrical Team and is working on designing PCB schematics and integrating sensors in the advanced and micro class planes. He likes to play basketball, monopoly, and chinese checkers.Anjali is a sophomore from Raleigh, NC studying Electrical Engineering and Robotics. She is a member of the electrical team helping build the thrust stand for testing. Her hobbies include dancing, writing, DJ’ing, and tinkering.William Zhang is a freshman from Boston studying Artificial Intelligence on the electrical team. I’m passionate about robotics and AI. My favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate.Ngaatendwe Manyika is a Junior in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Science concentrating in Energy and Fluids. She is also a first-year Accelerated Masters Student in Mechanical Engineering. Ngaatendwe works on the SAE Advanced Class electrical components. She loves the beach but is yet to build a grand sand castle.Ian is a freshman from Cleveland, Ohio studying electrical engineering, and he is on the in-flight sensors subteam of the electrical team. His favorite artists include Noah Kahan, J Cole, Kings of Leon, and Playboi Carti (what fwaeh YVL seeyuhhhh).Mike is a first year master’s student in Electrical Engineering. He is helping out with a custom motor thrust testing stand and designing the payload for the advanced class plane. He has been participating in SAE competition since his undergrad at Union College.Deniz is a freshman from Syracuse, NY studying Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the electrical team and is working on developing printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the planes. In his free time, you can find Deniz playing basketball or tennis, watching the Premier League, or playing videogames with his friends.Anthony is a freshman from Troy, MI studying electrical engineering. He is a member of the Electrical team and is part of the Torque Stand subteam.Hubery is a freshman from Frisco, TX, studying electrical engineering. He is a member of the electrical team focusing on the thrust stand. In his free time, he enjoys biking, badminton, and trying out new sports.Sydney is a junior in Computer & Electrical Engineering on the electrical and operations subteams. She has been on the team since 2023 and attended in SAE Aero West in 2025. Her fun fact is she can sleep anywhere, anytime, and even won a team superlative for itCymberly is a freshman from Philly suburbs studying Electrical Engineering and is on Penn AiR’s Electrical team. She is over 5 feet tall.PhilipMadisonAshwinMithilBowenLuca
