Sana Elyas is an accomplished materials & process engineer, currently employed as the R&D Program Manager at Arris Composites Inc. Her experience with advanced composite materials began over a decade ago as a researcher at NIAR investigating and testing continuous fiber composites and deriving B-allowables for a FAA-B787 crashworthiness project. Prior to this she worked on determining the acoustic & vortex shedding frequencies causing the combustion instability in a solid rocket motor, applied in an ALBM. After graduation, she applied her knowledge in materials and OOA manufacturing processes suited for automotive, off-road vehicles, heavy-duty truck, rail, marine, infrastructure and industrial applications. Leading light-weighting projects from metal/plastic to composite with leading OEM’s/Tier I’s-Ford, Honda, Fiat-Chrysler, Daimler, Tesla, Airbus, Boeing, BE Aerospace, Diehl Aviation and Triumph Aerostructures aided in a deeper understanding of advanced composites and meeting industry’s performance vs. cost. vs. volume needs. Has a master’s in aerospace engineering, Wichita State University, KS and bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering, JNTU India.
She serves as a Director of SAMPE-LA chapter, a member of DEI committee and advisor for SAMPE UC-Berkeley student chapter. She won the 2020 SAMPE Young Professional Leadership Award. Through her association with SAMPE, she has actively participated in submitting technical papers, review conference papers, panelist for the first, “Women in SAMPE” event, judge best papers at CAMX 2018, chair additive manufacturing session, organizing committee 75th Anniversary dinner in Los Angeles, CA, moderate campfire session at CAMX 2020, started a student chapter at UC-Berkeley, meet leaders from the industry, be part of a community and grow as an individual.