MIT Enterprise Forum of Texas, in Collaboration with the MIT Alumni Club of South Texas
“Robots in Space”
Flagship Program – Thursday evening, June 23, 2011
Speaker Profiles:
Dr. Jennifer L. Rochlis
Dr. Rochlis received her B.A. in Physics from Mount
Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA and her M.S. and
Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,
MA. Her research interests include human systems
integration, human factors engineering, teleoperation
and telerobotics, and human-computer interfaces. Since
2000 she has been working for the Software, Robotics
and Simulation division at the NASA Johnson Space
Center in Houston, TX.
Dr. Rochlis has worked on projects while at JSC including Robonaut, the next generation
Lunar/Martian rovers, ground control of Space Station and Space Shuttle arms, and KC-135
microgravity experiments for ergonomics evaluations, tile repair and educational outreach.
Since 2008 Dr. Rochlis has been the Lead for the Constellation program Human Systems
Integration Group which involves developing and managing the human systems
integration and human rating requirements, technical priorities, and risk across a multicenter team of engineers, and scientists. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the
Human Robotic Interface project for NASA’s Human Research Program.
Steven González
Loaned Executive from NASA/Johnson Space Center
Mr. González currently serves as the NASA Loaned
Executive for the aerospace sector. He has over 23 years
of experience in the aerospace industry. Prior to
accepting this position, Mr. González was the Deputy of
the Advanced Planning Office at the NASA/Johnson
Space Center (JSC), which is responsible for the 20 year
strategy of the Johnson Space Center. Mr. González has
also served as the Chief of the Operations Research and
Strategic Development Branch within the Mission
Operations Directorate. He has received numerous
awards and was nominated as one of the 100 Most
Important Hispanics in Technology and Business, the
Rotary Stellar Award Nomination for demonstrating
exceptional competence as a leader. He also received the JSC Certificate of Commendation,
the Center’s highest honorary award for exceptional leadership and technical abilities for
managing, the integration, scheduling, and testing of the software and hardware system
deliveries for the new JSC Mission Control Center. He received his Masters of Science at Texas
A&M University and his Bachelors at Boston University.