Team

The people behind the Aircraft

VFS is run by students. Our leads own the different parts of the aircraft and the day-to-day work of the team.

Leadership

2025–2026 leads

Valentino Cattaneo
President
Valentino Cattaneo
Xuli (Henry) You
Chief Engineer
Xuli YouGoes by Henry
Rithik Kurup
Design Lead
Rithik Kurup
Avionics & Operations Lead
Sean Larson
Powertrain Lead
Matthew Lee
Software & Autonomy Lead
Grant Fellows
The full VFS team with a prototype

One team, many majors

Behind the leads is a larger group of students who show up to design meetings, build sessions, and flight tests. Members come from across engineering and beyond, and the team is open to anyone who wants to help build aircraft.

The team is advised by Prof. Thiago Guimarães and Tom Bietsch (AAE Engineer) of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, along with Prof. Woongkul Lee of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Join the team →