In the US, March has been declared “Women’s History Month” by a series of annual proclamations by the President. It is also celebrated during March in the United Kingdom and Australia, corresponding with International Women’s Day, and during October in Canada, corresponding with the celebration of Persons Day. The goal of Women’s History Month is to highlight the contribution of women to events in history and contemporary society.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Purdue University recently interviewed a number of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering (AAE) alumnae to find out what they’re doing now and how their Purdue AAE degrees helped them get there.

Creare’s Ariane Chepko (B.S. AAE 2006) was one of the alumnae featured in the “Women of Purdue AAE” series.  Congratulations, Ariane, on being recognized by Purdue along with your peers in aerospace engineering! We’re also proud of all the talented women engineers, technicians, and administrators on our staff.

Fascinated by Space

Ariane explains why she chose her college major: “Since I was a little kid I was fascinated by space–I loved looking at the moon and planets through the telescope and reading about the early space program.  There are so many questions to answer out there, I wanted to help answer some of them!  I decided that figuring out how to get to those places was what interested me the most, which lead me to Aerospace Engineering.”

Her ultimate career goals include “using technology to solve real problems, both terrestrially to improve quality of life and to support and enable further exploration of space.  I would love to see a lander go to Jupiter’s moon Europa, or people on Mars, and be a part of that.”

After completing her bachelor’s degree at Purdue in 2006, Ariane earned her master’s degree from MIT in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. At MIT, she worked closely with NASA to develop system modeling and optimization tools of lunar oxygen production systems for in situ resource utilization (ISRU).  Her graduate research focused on the implementation of genetic algorithms to support design decision-making for complex systems and system architecture development.

Currently, Ariane is an engineer at Creare. She is involved in analysis of heat transfer and flow systems, instrumentation and testing, space applications technology, system modelling, and sensor design.  She managed a project to develop a miniature space weather sensor for CubeSats. She has also led efforts to develop a gas-solids heat exchanger for lunar ISRU applications as well as dust filtration systems for Mars.

Creare offers excellent employment opportunities to all engineers who thrive on a diversity of technical R&D challenges in a fast-paced, project-oriented work environment.  Visit our Careers page to learn more!  We welcome you to contact our Human Resources staff directly with specific questions and inquiries, careers@creare.com, 603-643-3800.  Creare is an equal opportunity employer.