Rachael Coquilla
Chief Engineer
Education:
B.S. Aerospace Engineering (1996), San Jose State University
M.S. Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (2004), University of California, Davis
Biography:
Rachael Coquilla is the Chief Engineer for Otech Engineering, Inc. As Chief Engineer, she provides technical leadership that supports the highest service quality positioning the company at the forefront of the industry. She researches and develops goals and objectives that advance the technical growth of the company and overall manages technical operations. Rachael received her Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University in 1996 and her Master’s Degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 2004.
Rachael started at Otech in 2005 as a consultant for establishing the quality operation of the company’s first wind tunnel. She came highly recommended by Dr. Bruce White, Dean of College of Engineering, University of California, Davis, due to her lengthy history with wind tunnels and laboratory measurement techniques. Her interest in wind tunnel research began at San Jose State University, where her degree of concentration included airfoil studies in a low Reynolds number wind tunnel, Schieleren photos of various aircraft nose shapes in a supersonic shock tube, and various methods of flow measurement such as Pitot-static tubes, thermal anemometry, and laser Doppler velocimetry.
During her senior year at San Jose State, she accepted a laboratory technician position at the Martian Surface Wind Tunnel (MARSWIT) located at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Rachael was selected for this position not only for her excellent progress in her undergraduate education but also for her practical and technical experience gained as an aircraft structural mechanic in the United States Marine Corps and as a precision welder/fabricator for Bay Area companies, HTB, Inc. and Orbitek Engineering, Inc. In the Marine Aircraft Logistics Squadron, Rachael also acquired knowledge in quality control and documentation, where she later applied to the Statistical Process Control system at HTB, Inc.
At NASA Ames, Rachael conducted wind tunnel experiments simulating wind flow over a Martian surface boundary layer environment. Such wind flow was used to study surface dust emissions, sand saltation, and Martian lander spacecraft models. Thus, Rachael not only worked with wind tunnel engineers but also scientists in the fields of atmospheric science and geology. Rachael also trained herself in the development of LabVIEW data acquisition codes. Currently, LabVIEW codes developed by Rachael are still being used at the Martian Surface Wind Tunnel facility.
While at NASA, Rachael also worked with Dr. Bruce White to initiate a project pertaining to Martian dust dispersion under unstable surface conditions. This work collaboration also included an offer from Dr. White to conduct the study in pursuit of a Masters degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at UC Davis. Thus, Rachael was hired as a Research Assistant for the UC Davis Environmental Aerodynamics Laboratory directed by Dr. White. Other than research, part of her work at UC Davis involved updating the wind tunnel data acquisition system with LabVIEW so that experiments may be adaptable to various graduate student and university consulting projects. Rachael also assisted the students in their thesis work by setting up the wind tunnels for their individual experiments. LabVIEW codes developed by Rachael for the UC Davis wind tunnels are also still in use today.
Rachael’s wind tunnel experience is inclusive of aerodynamic wind tunnels, boundary layer wind tunnels, environmental wind tunnels, and saltation wind tunnels. Throughout her research career, Rachael has participated in wind tunnel studies of flow over low speed airfoils, dust suspension, unstable surface layer simulation, boundary layer turbulence measurements, pedestrian level winds over urban areas, gas dispersion from laboratory exhaust stacks, and flow over complex terrain.
