– T. S. Eliot
Iona (Brockie) Tirona is a mechanical engineer with a mechatronics focus. She currently works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she has over a decade of experience designing flight hardware for the surface of Mars.
Her areas of expertise include full lifecycle hardware development, system level mechanical design, requirements development and verification, and mentorship of junior engineers. She is passionate about simplifying robotic systems through creative mechanical design, improving interdisciplinary communication, and enabling exploration.