Kaila M. Y. Coimbra

I am a Ph.D. student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at Stanford University. My current research is on rover positioning on the Moon in the Navigation and Autonomous Vehicles (NAV) Lab under the advisement of Professor Grace Gao. I am a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and an NSF GRFP fellow.

In June 2023, I earned my B.S. degree from Caltech in mechanical engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering. During my time at Caltech, I worked with Professor Chiara Daraio on studying the dynamic properties of helical-type acoustic metamaterials. I also worked with Professor Soon-Jo Chung on numerous projects, including the 2021 and 2022 NASA BIG Idea Challenges and my senior thesis on space power generation for sustained lunar habitation. 

Interests: Navigation, trajectory planning, robotics, mission architecture and design, space and lunar exploration, the Moon