•most promising engineer - master’s•

Education:  Masters in Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California; Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering, University of Notre Dame

Monica Ochoa Porter has come a very long way in a short time.  As a young girl, she would climb onto her roof at night to ponder the cosmos, and she became the first in her family to attend university.  Soon after, she joined the Boeing corporation, where she could truly reach for the stars. 

Just two months after starting in the company’s Space Launch System division, she was asked to meet with the NASA customer to present on a new project she was assigned which required the use of a tool called MATLAB. This empowered her to compare loads calculations from different program cycles allowing trends to be identified from massive amounts of data. 

Among 20 attendees, she was the only woman, one of two people of color, and the youngest person in the room by a decade.  She brought down the house, and to this day, MATLAB remains in use at NASA.

In just six years of professional experience, she has flourished in her field by being, among other talents, a fast learner.  After a colleague suddenly quit early in her Boeing career, she was given two weeks to learn the model reduction and integration process known as the Craig-Bampton methodology, which typically takes engineers years to understand. She overcame the challenge and created an entire suite of models for another NASA customer.

In her second rotation with the two-year Engineering Career Foundation Program (ECFP), she worked on a Boeing Research & Technology project that explored industry cognitive modeling and human performance tools as the sole person licensed to explore the Integrated Performance Modeling Environment (IPME), entrusted to teach herself how to use the program. 

While in ECFP, she began with human factors and human engineering, despite never having any training in the discipline.  Again, with only six months to get up to speed, she learned new terminology, techniques, and programming languages so she could contribute effectively to her teams.

Monica is now the Human Engineering Lead, entrusted to help design interfaces that will keep astronauts safe during missions on the CST-100 Starliner, the Boeing spacecraft that will soon start taking NASA-sponsored crew members to and from the International Space Station.  It is the first U.S.-built reusable spacecraft using capsule architecture that is designed to return to Earth on land instead of the ocean.

As a leader, Monica is motivated to drive results, meet and exceed goals, and contribute to her teammates’ growth as professionals while continuously developing her own skills.  She is self-aware, accepts constructive criticism, and considers the work of other leaders in her efforts to improve her own leadership. With vulnerability and by example, she hopes to increase team trust so everyone can better work together to achieve common goals.

Monica engaged with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) as a student member at the University of Notre Dame and became Secretary her senior year, attending national conventions and helping organize events for students to better prepare them for the career fair. 

She participated in Hispanic Heroes, a session at an HSF Youth Leadership Institute in Chicago. She joined LA’s HSF Advisory Council in 2021 and, after moving to Houston, transitioned to that city’s council, where she continues to provide support. Monica views HSF as essential to her success as a college student and her opportunities at Boeing.