# Aisha Bowe

Aisha Bowe is a Bahamian-American aerospace engineer, founder, STEM advocate, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of CEO of STEMBoard, a technology company, and LINGO, an educational tech company featuring tutorials and online resources featuring NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace In 2020, STEMBoard landed on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately owned U.S. companies.
Bowe is the recipient of NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal, US Women's Chamber of Commerce Emerging Star Award and Virginia Business magazine’s Black Business Leaders Award.
On February 27, 2025, it was announced that Bowe would be part of the crew for Blue Origin's eleventh flight to space under the New Shepard program, along with Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn and journalists Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez. The launch is expected to take place in spring 2025.

## Early life and education

Bowe grew up in the United States in a working-class family. Although her high school guidance counselor recommended that she become a cosmetologist, Bowe's father encouraged her to take a mathematics class at her local community college. This foundation in mathematics then allowed Bowe to transfer into engineering programs at the University of Michigan from Washtenaw Community College.
Bowe completed her undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering in 2008, and master's degree in space systems engineering in 2009, both at the University of Michigan. She has said she chose aerospace engineering because of an interest in science fiction. One of her graduate professors, Thomas Zurbuchen, was a mentor and inspiration to Bowe to pursue a career at NASA.

## Career

Bowe worked in the Ames Research Center, in the Flight Trajectory Dynamics and Controls Branch of the Aviation Systems Division. She joined the AST Flight and Fluid Mechanics group in 2009, assisting in the development and of algorithms in support of Air Traffic Management. In 2012 she received the National Society of Black Engineers award for Outstanding Technical Contribution for her paper "Evaluation of a Fuel Efficient Aircraft Maneuver for Conflict Resolution". As a Bahamian-American, Bowe wants "to see more Bahamians in the science and technology field."
While at NASA, she served as liaison to the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program. In this role, she mentored students, held interview workshops and led NASA site tours.
Bowe is a part of the U.S State Department Speaker Program and has delivered lectures in South Africa, Israel and Kuwait.
Bowe was awarded 2024 Woman of the Year by STEM FOR HER for her work contributions to the field of aerospace engineering and commitment to inspiring and mentoring young women in STEM. She also received the 2024 Luminary Award at Black Enterprise's Women of Power Summit and being named Essence Magazine's POWER 40.
Bowe will travel with Blue Origin in 2025 on the New Shepard launch vehicle making her the first black woman to travel with Blue Origin. Bowe is expected to be the sixth Black woman to cross the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. She will share the mission with guests Gayle King, Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn.
In an interview with ABC News, Bowe shared that she mentored a 13-year-old girl who is now an aerospace engineer working for Blue Origin on one of the same rockets Bowe will be taking flight on.
On February 18, 2025 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster landed off the coast of The Exumas. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (BMOTIA) hosted a delegation of Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and special guests led by Prime Minister Phillip Davis at Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina to witness the event. Bowe was invited for her role in creating space protocols in The Bahamas and her work in creating opportunities in STEM fields in the Bahamas.
Bowe attended the 56th Annual NAACP Image Awards where Kamala Harris received the Chairman Award.
Bowe is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and a certified Program Management Professional by PMI. She is also a certified SSI scuba diver and a mountain climber.

## STEMBoard

Bowe is a co-founder and CEO of STEMBoard, a company that provides professional advisory services to organizations in the U.S Government. The company was founded in 2013 and is an SBA 8(a) Certified Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) supported by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce.
STEMBoard was ranked on Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in 2020. The company was also the recipient of the Nunn-Perry Award 2022 presented by the United States Department of Defense.

## LINGO

Bowe founded LINGO, an education technology company in 2022. The company makes projects-based activities for kids. The activities are available in the form of kits including coding kit that teaches hardware and software design. The lessons are self-paced. The first kit was called "In the Driver’s Seat" which taught kids to create and code a back-up sensor for an autonomous car. The company provides kits to children in over 10 countries.

## Published works

Some of Bowe's selected publications are:
* Lauderdale, Todd A; Cone, Andrew C; Bowe, Aisha R (2011). "Relative significance of trajectory prediction errors on an automated separation assurance algorithm" (PDF). 9th USA/Europe ATM R&D Seminar (ATM2011). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2013.
* Cone, Andrew; Bowe, Aisha; Lauderdale, Todd (2012). "Robust conflict detection and resolution around top of descent" (PDF). 12th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference and 14th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference. doi:10.2514/6.2012-5644. ISBN 978-1-60086-930-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 8, 2017.
* Bowe, Aisha; Santiago, Confesor (2012). "An approach for balancing delay and fuel burn in separation assurance automation" (PDF). 12th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference and 14th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference. doi:10.2514/6.2012-5416. ISBN 978-1-60086-930-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2015.
* Bowe, Aisha; Lauderdale, Todd (2010). "Selecting conflict resolution maneuvers based on minimum fuel burn". 29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference. IEEE. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.719.4632. doi:10.1109/DASC.2010.5655529. ISBN 978-1-4244-6616-0. S2CID 16101938.

## Media
### Articles

* How This Former NASA Engineer Wants to Make STEM Youth Education More Accessible
* The remote learning coding kit is encouraging black teens to get into STEM
* Why a Rocket Scientist Quit NASA to Help Young Coders
* Meet the former NASA engineer helping to send careers into orbit
* Meet Aisha Bowe, the Rocket Scientist and Entrepreneur Committed to Mentoring Black Tech's Next Generation
* STEM at home: University of Michigan alum creates learning kit during pandemic
* These Black Founders Succeeded In Spite of Silicon Valley
* Introducing Fast Government, an exploration of innovation and talent in public service
* Aerospace Engineer Aisha Bowe Introduces At-Home Coding Kit
* U-M Aerospace alumnus Aisha Bowe returns to her alma mater Pioneer High School for presentation and Q&A Panel Archived 2021-05-01 at the Wayback Machine

### Talks

* Nicole Riche's Pearl xChange (2016)
* LCL Season 4 EP10: How To Overcome Self Doubt with Aisha Bowe & Gerard Adams
* Aisha Bowe, CEO of STEMBoard keynote @ DiversityBusiness.com 16th Annual National Summit
* Aisha Bowe speaking at Platform Summit 2015
* Black Women in History - AMC Network NAACP PSA

### Podcasts

* Aisha Bowe: Rocket Science and Start-ups
* Mentor Memos: Aisha Bowe and Claire Luce
* Women in Business, Episode 3: Aisha Bowe, Startups Magazine: The Cereal Entrepreneur
* Techstination STEMBoard Lingo CEO Aisha Bowe

### Television

* NASA Aerospace Engineer Empowers Unrepresented People To Pursue Engineering Careers. April 18, 2021. The Kelly Clarkson Show.
* This Rocket Scientist Was Once Told She Wouldn’t Be Good At STEM, She Didn’t Let It Stop Her. April 12, 2021. Tamron Hall Show.
* Mars Rover Landing. February 18, 2021. NBCLX.
* This Rocket Scientist Was Once Told She Wouldn’t Be Good At STEM, She Didn’t Let It Stop Her. April 12, 2021. Tamron Hall Show.
* Aisha Bowe Prepares for Historic Space Voyage As First Black Woman Aboard Blue Origin. December 21, 2024. ABC News.

## Awards

Bowe has been recognized for her contributions to engineering, diversity, and equal opportunity by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Society of Black Engineers, and US Women's Chamber of Commerce. Some selected awards are:
* 2024 - STEM for Her's Woman of the Year 2024
* 2023 - Washington Business Journal 40 Under 40
* 2023 – Black Business Leaders Award by Virginia Business Magazine
* 2022 – Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 100
* 2020 - Entrepreneur of the Year by the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) of Washington, D.C.
* 2020 - Outstanding Alumna Award, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
* 2020 - INC 5000 2020 List of Fastest Growing Companies
* 2015 - US Women's Chamber of Commerce “Emerging Star” Award
* 2014 - Silicon Valley's National Coalition of 100 Black Women's Women in Technology of the Year Award
* 2012 - NASA’s Engineering Honor Award
* 2012 - NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal