• Patti Grace Smith Fellow, Class of 2026

• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Pre-Engineering & Aerospace Engineering, ‘28

• Host Institution: Rendezvous Robotics

Tyler Fullilove is an aspiring aerospace engineer from the South Side of Chicago whose passion for flight and space exploration began at age seventeen, when she flew on an airplane for the first time. That moment sparked a deep curiosity about how aerospace systems function and how access to advanced technology can transform lives. Since then, Tyler has pursued aerospace engineering not only as a technical discipline but as a vehicle for expanding opportunity, sustainability, and representation within STEM. She is currently a sophomore at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, with plans to earn a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Her academic and professional interests center on spacecraft systems, radiation mitigation, materials engineering, and sustainable mission design, with an emphasis on improving spacecraft reliability while minimizing environmental and operational costs.

Tyler is an active member of the University of Cincinnati’s CubeCats program, where she contributes to the design, testing, and integration of CubeSat systems. Her work includes evaluating lightweight composite materials for spacecraft radiation protection and generating mission data that informs long-term spacecraft durability and sustainable material selections. This work directly informs sustainable spacecraft material selection and long-term mission reliability. In addition, Tyler also conducts undergraduate research at Northern Kentucky University focused on active galactic nuclei variability in supermassive black holes. As part of a multi-institutional research group, she processes and analyzes NASA Swift archival data across X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavelengths using Python-based tools. She also contributes to multiwavelength variability models that improve understanding of accretion physics and black hole structure.

Tyler has held leadership and technical roles across multiple NASA workforce development programs, including L’SPACE and the Community College Aerospace Scholars program. As a project manager and engineer, she has guided interdisciplinary teams through formal NASA design reviews, developed mission proposals aligned with NASA technology taxonomies, and supported Artemis-related radiation protection studies.

Equally central to Tyler’s identity is her commitment to STEM outreach and sustainability. She serves as an instructional facilitator with Black Boys in Tech, mentoring underrepresented students and designing early-grade robotics curricula, and she founded Sustaining Cincy, an initiative promoting ecological awareness through community cleanups and educational programming. Tyler believes sustainable space exploration and inclusive STEM education are inseparable, and she is dedicated to ensuring that the future of aerospace is both environmentally responsible and accessible to the communities historically excluded from it.