• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2024

• Purdue University - West Lafayette, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, ‘26

• Host Institution: The Aerospace Corporation

• Mentor: Dan Dumbacher

• Brookie Mentor: Vaishali Shah

Madeleine Yee is a second-year Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is also pursuing a minor in economics and is part of the John Martinson Honors College.

Throughout her childhood, Madeleine had a love for anything related to space. She had always known she wanted to become an aerospace engineer, from visiting her local children’s science museum to all the major air and space museums and space shuttles around the country. During high school, her interest in math and science added to her curiosity and hard work in developing her passion for the field.

Madeleine’s interest in the subject has led her to multiple research projects outside the classroom. She has previously examined the spray of respiratory droplets related to COVID-19 and characterized wake flows using convolutional neural networks. As part of her current research, she is exploring liquid metal jet flows leaving a reservoir using computational fluid dynamics. Madeleine greatly enjoys the research process and hopes to earn a PhD, as she is fascinated by discovering the unknown ideas of the universe.

At Purdue, Madeleine is committed to encouraging women and gender minorities to pursue STEM, as she spends her time volunteering for the Women in Engineering Program, the Society of Women Engineers, and Women in Aerospace. Madeleine is also a strong proponent of mentoring, as she is both a mentor and mentee in several of Purdue’s mentoring programs. She currently serves as Social Chair of Purdue’s Sigma Gamma Tau chapter, a national honor society for aerospace engineering. Beyond the classroom, Madeleine loves to crochet, read, and listen to Taylor Swift.

Last summer, Madeleine worked at L3Harris Technologies as a Mechanical Engineering intern performing thermal analyses. This summer, Madeleine is excited to join The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA as a technical intern in the Thermal Control Department. She is thrilled to represent the Brooke Owens Fellowship as a member of the Class of 2024!