J.D. Yoder, Ph.D.

J.D. Yoder, Ph.D. is the dean of the T.J. Smull College of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University (ONU). At ONU, he is involved with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). His research interests include computer vision, mobile robotics, intelligent vehicles, entrepreneurship and engineering education. He holds multiple patents and publications focused on these areas. In addition to ONU, he also served as a faculty fellow at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Yoder earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Jennifer Trosper

Jennifer Trosper is an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. During her 30-year career at JPL, Trosper has held numerous engineering leadership roles on every spacecraft that has roved on the surface of Mars. Trosper’s expertise in leading system engineering teams and operations of complex systems has been the hallmark of her success at JPL. She also played a lead role in the infusion of autonomy and state-of-the-art ground operations systems into the JPL rover missions. Trosper earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.