Team

Harsh Bhundiya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. He obtained a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2025 and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2020. At MIT, Harsh was a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellow and worked in Prof. Zachary Cordero’s Aerospace Materials and Structures Laboratory, where his research focused on the rapid in-space assembly and manufacturing of large truss structures. After MIT, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the AIAA Spacecraft Structures Technical Committee. Outside of research, he enjoys playing racket sports, hiking, and cooking.

José Morel is a Clark Doctoral Fellow and an Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student in SPARC Lab. His research interests include in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) technology concept development, as well as planetary surface robotics and structures. Prior to joining SPARC Lab in 2026, José was an Aerospace Engineer within the Space Mission Analysis Branch at NASA Langley Research Center, where he worked on human spaceflight architectures and ISAM capability modeling. He also contributed to the development and testing of large-scale composite boom systems for solar sails and lunar infrastructure. José has completed internships at companies such as Redwire Space and Virgin Galactic, and was named a Matthew Isakowitz Fellow in 2023. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University, as well as a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a Graduate Certificate in Astrobiology, both from Georgia Tech. His work at Georgia Tech focused on aircraft/spacecraft concept design with the Aerospace Systems Design Lab. Outside of research, he enjoys hiking, climbing, and running triathlons.

Sam Ondrusek joined SPARC Lab in 2026 as an Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student. His research focuses on the optimal attitude control of spacecraft during in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing missions. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Robotics and Autonomous Systems from the University of Maryland. Alongside his doctoral studies, Sam works full-time as a Modeling and Simulation engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, video games, and 3D printing.