Cliff SheehanManager, Standards Engineering

Cliff Sheehan is the Manager of Standards Engineering at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), where he supports the National Aerospace Standards (NAS) program. In this role, he collaborates with industry experts to update and improve the part and process standards used across commercial and military applications.

As a student at Duke University, Sheehan spent significant time in the Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Laboratory (MaRRS Lab), which sparked his interest in UAVs and engineering. He completed his senior thesis with the MaRRS Lab, using machine learning to detect and differentiate between adult and juvenile grey seals in UAV surveys of breeding colonies. After graduating, he worked as a research field technician with the University of Southern Mississippi, collecting data for ongoing studies on fiddler crabs, blue crabs, and seagrass ecology. Sheehan’s continued curiosity about engineering motivated him to return to school to study mechanical engineering. During his studies, he spent two semesters as a co-op with the Standards Department at AIA and was taken by how passionate the team and industry experts were about the details of the standards he was working with them to update.

Sheehan holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with a Marine Science concentration from Duke University.