Danny is a first-generation college student and transfer majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering. While attending community college, she interned at the Los Angeles International Airport with the planning and development group, where she visited the airfield and became fascinated with the airplanes and how they worked. She then spent the summer of 2019 as a research fellow at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech (GALCIT). Her project focused on creating a simulation model that could be used to test autonomous features on an underwater robot.

Now at UC Davis and in the HRVIP lab, Danny has worked with the Inspection Sat team designing a deployment mechanism based on system requirements for a cubesat computer vision testbed. She then spent the summer of 2022 developing helmet-mounted display (HMD) technology for astronauts to use during underwater training in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. When she’s not hitting the books, you can find Danny painting, reading, or going out for ice cream at the Davis creamery with friends.

To learn a little more about Daniela, read Engineering Her Future - an article written about Daniela by her former institution, Santa Monica College.