She does research on safety analysis and risk assessment of complex socio-technical systems. She is using her 2014 NSF CAREER award to develop new ways of teaching systems engineering. She holds a B. Eng. in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Stellenbosch and a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of South Africa. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT in 2001 and 2005. Before graduate school, she worked in South Africa as an electronic engineer.