Originally from Germany, Debora was born in September 1972, and graduated from the Mariengymnasium zu Jever, Germany, with Abitur in June 1992. After internship at Balck Maschinenbau, GmbH, she moved to Braunschweig, Germany, in October 1992, studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig, and specialized in aerospace engineering. She received her pre-diploma (Vordiplom) in October 1994 and continued her studies in aerospace engineering, with an emphasis on flight mechanics. In early September 1995, Debora moved to Atlanta, GA, USA, sponsored by the World Students Fund (WSF) of the YMCA, to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology as a graduate student in aerospace engineering. Since then, she has been a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) with the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL), and switched her main focus to the design of aerospace systems and the development of new design methodologies. She graduated with a Master's of Science in March 1997 and passed the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination in October 1997. Her Ph.D. research focuses on the investigation and formulation of metamodel implementation processes for complex systems design, where four metamodeling techniques are being investigated in detail: Response Surface Equations, Artificial Neural Networks, Gaussian Processes, and Kriging. For each of these, the mathematical foundations, assumptions and limitations are investigated and implementation processes are formulated. A selection procedure mapping the type of metamodeling problem to appropriate techniques is being developed, and special consideration is given to the underlying strategy of each technique, in terms of regression and statistical inference.