Maj Rachel Oliver, PhD
Major Rachel Oliver is an assistant professor at Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. She teaches about Space Domain Awareness and spaceflight dynamics and controls to the next generation of astronautical engineers for the United States Space Force. In addition, she manages satellite tracking research at the institute with a primary focus on novel sensing techniques. As deputy director for the Center of Space Research and Assurance, she supports institution-wide space research efforts.
The major entered the Air Force in May 2015, cross-commissioning from the United States Military Academy. She first completed a degree in astronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2017. Afterwards, she served as a thermal systems engineer and, subsequently, the chief engineer for the Integrated Structural Systems Program of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate. In those roles, she led research on infrared imaging of spacecraft and new spacecraft thermal control technologies including oscillating heat pipes. Prior to her current position, the major was a doctoral student studying aerospace engineering through the Air Force Institute of Technology Civilian Institution Program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Education
Ph.D. Aeronautical Engineering, Cornell University, 2024
M.S. Aeronautical Engineering, Cornell University, 2022
M.S. Astronautical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, 2017
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, United States Military Academy, 2015
Publications
"Event-based Vision and Factor Graph-Based Approach for Sensor Geolocation from Observations of an Orbiting Satellite," Kaleb Nelson, Clark Taylor, and Rachel Oliver; Proceedings of the 2025 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation.
"Event-based Sensor Noise Modeling for Space-based Space Domain Awareness," Rachel Oliver and Dmitry Savransky; 25th Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference
"Enhanced Heuristic Algorithm for Optimal Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Architecture,” Jacob Dahlke, Robert Bettinger, and Rachel Oliver; 25th Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference
"An Event-Based Vision Sensor Simulation Framework for Space Domain Awareness Applications." Rachel Oliver; Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, ProQuest
"Demystifying Event-based Sensor Biasing to Optimize Signal to Noise for Space Domain Awareness,” Brian McReynolds, Rui Graca, Rachel Oliver, Masashi Nishiguchi, and Tobi Delbruck; 24th Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference
"Modeling and Decoding Event-Based Sensor Lightning Response,” Brian McReynolds, Rui Graca, Daniel O’Keefe, Rachel Oliver, Richard Balthazor, Nathaniel George, and Matthew McHarg; SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications
"Event-based Sensor Multiple Hypothesis Tracker for Space Domain Awareness," Rachel Oliver and Dmitry Savransky; 23rd Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference
"Event-based Sensor Model for Space Domain Awareness," Rachel Oliver and Dmitry Savransky; 22nd Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference
"Thermal Modeling of a Chip Based Cold-Atom Inertial Navigation System," Erich Brown, Brent Taft, and Rachel Oliver; 48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, ICES-2018-331
"Model Fidelity Analysis for Production of Accurate Theoretical Light Curves,” Rachel Oliver; Master’s Thesis, Air Force Institute of Technology, DTIC
"Optimized Undergraduate Thermal Analysis of Cube Satellites," Rachel Oliver, Bobby Crawford, and Guy Burrow; 13th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, AIAA 2015-3986