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Top row, left to right: Sylvie DeLaHunt ’14, M.S. ’16, Levi DeVries M.S. ’13, Ph.D. ’14 & Ian Higgins M.S. ’08
Bottom row, left to right: Quinn Kupec ’20, Brandon Litt ’10 & Nitin Raghu ’14
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In 2022, the A. James Clark School of Engineering established the Early Career Distinguished Alumni Society (ECDA) to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments and impact of Maryland engineers under 40 years old for their leadership, innovation, service or entrepreneurship.
This year, six Department of Aerospace Engineering alumni are among the 24 individuals selected for the ECDA Class of 2026. They will be honored during a ceremony held on Friday, September 18, 2026.
Sylvie DeLaHunt ’14, M.S. ’16
DeLaHunt is a senior guidance, navigation, and control engineer and assistant supervisor of the Discovery Program at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the U.S.’s largest University Affiliated Research Center. As a technical leader, she specializes in early concept development, risk reduction, and modeling and simulation for defensive missile systems for the U.S. Navy. Simultaneously, DeLaHunt co-leads the Discovery Program, APL’s two-year technical rotational program for select recent graduates. Previously, she led an engineering team as supervisor of the Future Weapon Concepts and Algorithms Section within APL’s Air and Missile Defense Sector. A past president of the APL Women in Technology affinity group and committee leader across APL, DeLaHunt has championed initiatives to promote onboarding, staff development, leadership training, and recognition. In the engineering community, she is a public speaker, author of op-eds, and leader within the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Awards and Recognition Working Group and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Missile Systems Technical Committee.
As a graduate student at Maryland, she was named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and one of “Tomorrow’s Engineering Leaders: The 20 Twenties” by Aviation Week and AIAA.
Levi DeVries M.S. ’13, Ph.D. ’14
DeVries is a Full Professor in the Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. A dedicated leader, educator, and researcher, he serves as the Laboratory Director for the department’s eight laboratory testing facilities and as the Academy's Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Coordinator, responsible for the training of UAS operators and deconfliction of airspace between manned and unmanned aerial and maritime operations at the Academy.
DeVries earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, and graduated summa cum laude from Concordia College with degrees in Physics and Mathematics. His technical expertise spans linear and nonlinear control, estimation theory, and computer vision. His research focuses on the coordination of multi-vehicle unmanned aerial, ground, surface, and underwater systems, with specific applications in autonomous aerial refueling, maritime unmanned systems integration, and wave energy conversion. His work is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Science Foundation (NSF), DARPA, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). He has pioneered projects in wave energy conversion, bio-inspired underwater vehicles, integration of unmanned systems on ships, and support-free additive manufacturing. He also serves as an Associate Editor for ASME Letters in Dynamic Systems and Control.
Ian Higgins M.S. ’08
Higgins is a Naval Aviator, test pilot, and aerospace engineer with operational, developmental test, and advanced technology leadership experience. After completing F/A-18 pilot training, he joined Strike Fighter Squadron 32, where he flew combat missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and served as the squadron’s ground safety officer, aircraft division officer, missile subject matter expert, and suicide prevention leader. Following graduation from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Higgins was assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 as an F/A-18 developmental test pilot. He led and supported testing across mission systems, envelope expansion, ordnance separation, air-to-air refueling, flying qualities, and carrier suitability, while also embedding at DARPA for his aerodynamic and flight test expertise. He later served as Chief Test Pilot of a joint special projects test squadron, responsible for the design, development, engineering, and testing of advanced aerospace technologies.
Higgins graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, earned M.S. degrees from the University of Maryland and the Naval Postgraduate School, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. He has logged more than 1,800 flight hours and 200 carrier landings and has been recognized with numerous leadership, individual performance, and team awards.
Quinn Kupec ’20
Kupec is the Mission Analysis Lead for Blue Origin’s Human Landing System program, working to return humans to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. He oversees the performance of the MK2 Crew and Cargo landers and supporting spacecraft. Kupec regularly advises senior vice presidents, the CEO, and company founder on architecture trades and analyses. Additionally, Kupec interfaces with the NASA customer to provide updates on Blue’s progress and collaborate on Artemis mission planning. Before he started as Mission Analysis Lead Kupec was the Mission Architect for a reusable space transportation development program at Blue Origin. He led the development of the mission for the spacecraft through the Architecture Concept Review. Kupec received a patent along with one of his colleagues for their invention of novel launch and recovery schemes for reusable launch vehicles. Prior to joining Blue Origin Kupec was a Space Systems engineer at a.i. solutions inc. Kupec worked on the FreeFlyer software team working with customers on troubleshooting issues and developing new features in the software.
Kupec has served as the chair of the Pacific Northwest Section of AIAA from 2022-2025. Previously he served as the Treasurer of the National Capital Section and received the 2021 Demler Award for service to the section.
Brandon Litt ’10
Litt is the Senior Director of Falcon & Dragon Integration at SpaceX, supporting flight and ground hardware build, assembly, testing, and launch operations at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg. Across his nearly 10-year tenure at SpaceX, Litt has been a critical enabler to an ever-increasing Falcon launch rate, driving his teams to streamline operations, improve reliability, and enhance safety as launch rates increased from 15 missions per year in 2017 to 165 launches per year in 2025, substantially reducing the cost of launch. Falcon 9 is the workhorse vehicle launching SpaceX constellation of Starlink satellites, providing worldwide access to high-speed internet, and the primary vehicle for both private and government astronaut access to space.
In his role as the head of the launch sites’ Falcon and Dragon teams, Litt continues to have a direct impact on both programs success as SpaceX continues to break records and improve access to space for wide range of private and government missions.
Nitin Raghu ’14
Raghu is an accomplished Product leader, patent-holder, and Aerospace Engineer with a proven track record of developing groundbreaking hardware and software products across the aerospace, consumer, and B2B SaaS markets. He currently serves as a Product Manager at Google, where he co-develops 0-1 AI products with DeepMind Research teams. Previously, Raghu was the Head of Product for AWS Ground Station, Amazon’s first space hardware and software product, which disrupted an $18B market by enabling satellite owners to transmit data seamlessly between Earth and Space. He was responsible for Amazon's first venture into the space industry, winning their first customer and supporting government agencies in more than 15 countries.
Prior, he led consulting teams at Deloitte for Aerospace and Telecom customers. He also led engineering teams for high-fidelity space system modeling and simulation at KBR. He started his career at a 3D printing startup founded by other University of Maryland graduates, building additive manufacturing products and rapid-prototype 3D models for NASA Goddard and other commercial clients with patented concepts. There he manufactured wiring schematics to aid NASA scientists with spacecraft testing.
Raghu earned his M.S. in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and he has a patent pending for a Confidential Data AI Agent from his work at Google.
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September 18, 2026
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