Alejandro Riaño was raised in Villapinzón, Colombia. He is awaiting his graduation ceremony as a mechanical engineer from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Alejandro’s fascination with mechanics and aerospace spans various fields, particularly solid mechanics, computational mechanics, energetic materials, systems of systems, and structural analysis. He has been actively involved in research groups such as GIDA and MIND, contributing to several projects presented at international congresses. Notably, he participated in NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2022, where his team “MIND” earned the Safety Award. Alejandro was a recipient of the Undergraduate Research Experience Purdue – Colombia (UREP-C 2023) scholarship, where he joined Professor Marisol Koslowski at Purdue University to analyze the effect of localized regions with high rates of temperature changes in energetic materials under shock waves. Additionally, he is working with Professor Juan Mantilla on analyzing the effects of Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) in an engine valve using the Phase Field Damage Model (PFDM), Hydrogen Enhanced Decohesion (HEDE) model, and Hydrogen Enhanced Localized Plasticity (HELP) model. Within SGAC, Alejandro co-managed the 8th South American Space Generation Workshop (SA-SGW) and served as the National Point of Contact for Colombia from 2022 to 2024, where he continues to pursue his passion for advancing the aerospace industry and promoting space outreach to communities with limited access.