Cecilia R. Aragon

Cecilia R. Aragon is an American computer scientist and champion
aerobatic pilot. [Ball, Edmund F. (1993)."Rambling Recollections of Flying and Fliers". Minnetrista Cultural Center, Muncie, Indiana. ISBN 0-9623291-8-5.] [cite news |first=Claudia |last=Miller
title=Berkeley Pilot Flies High in Aerobatics |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=December 251998 ] In computer science, she is best known as the co-inventor (with Raimund Seidel) of the treap data structure, a type of binary search tree that orders nodes by adding a priority as well as a key to each node. [cite journal |last=Aragon |first=C. R. |coauthors=Seidel, R. G. |year=1989 |month=Oct |title=Randomized Search Trees |journal=Foundations of Computer Science, 30th Annual Symposium on |volume= |issue= |pages=540–545 |doi=10.1109/SFCS.1989.63531 |isbn=0-8186-1982-1 ] Aragon received her B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a staff scientist at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, listing her research interests there as scientific and information visualization, visual analytics, image processing, and human-computer interaction. Prior to her appointment at LBNL, she was a computer scientist at NASA Ames Research Center for nine years, and before that, an airshow and test pilot, entrepreneur, and member of the United States Aerobatic Team. [cite episode |title= Daredevils of the Sky |episodelink= |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2103_daredevi.html |series=NOVA |serieslink= |credits= |network=PBS |station= |city= |airdate=February 1, 1994 |number= |minutes= |transcript= |transcripturl=]

Aragon first won a slot on the United States Aerobatic Team in 1991. She holds the record for shortest time from first solo in an airplane to membership on the US Team (less than six years), [cite news |first=Stacey |last=Wells |title=Worldwide competition leaves flier soaring |work=Vacaville Reporter |date=August 131992 ] [cite news |author=KPIX-TV |title=Evening Magazine |date=March 101999 ] and was also the first Latina to win a slot on the Team.

A team member from 1991-1994, she was a bronze medalist at the 1993 U.S. National Aerobatic Championships and the 1994 World Aerobatic Championships. She has also won over 70 trophies in regional aerobatic competitions at the Unlimited level and was California State Unlimited Aerobatic Champion in 1990. Aragon has also flown airshows (as distinct from aerobatic competitions) professionally since 1990.

Aragon has been a flight instructor since 1987. In 1989, she founded one of the first aerobatic and tailwheel flight schools in Northern California. [cite news |first=Stefanie |last=Mitchell |title=Computer Programmer Gets High on Aerobatics |work=Tri-Valley Herald (Livermore, California) |date=June 231993 ] Aragon was a pioneer of "unusual attitude recovery training," where flight students are taught how to recover from emergency situations in flight. She is currently (June 2007) an instructor at Tracy Airport in Tracy, California, conducting aerobatic training, competition coaching, and teaching people to overcome their fear of flying.

References

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2103_daredevi.html "Daredevils of the Sky."] "NOVA." PBS. (Aired February 11994; contains footage and interview with Aragon.)
* [http://quest.nasa.gov/database/bio_search.htm Bio] at NASA Ames Research Center
* [http://www-vis.lbl.gov/~aragon/ Home page] at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* [http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/a/Aragon:Cecilia_R=.html Publications list] at DBLP
* [http://www.iac.org International Aerobatic Club]