Brian Lowe Email & Phone Number

College Station, Tx, Us

College Station, Texas, United States

As a Research Engineering Technician, I worked closely with teams of 6-7 engineers and the position revolved around the composition and refinement of proposals designated for the Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (DOD SBIR) program. Brainstorming novel ideas, employment of the engineering design process, and technical writing and editing are crucial components of this job. Other primary responsibilities include software development in Python and C++, utilization of GitHub and GitLab, multi-GPU processing, market research, monitoring industry trends, analyzing market conditions, and identifying potential opportunities for innovation and growth.

College Station, Texas, United States

As a facilities student worker, I am responsible for working with a team of 11 other students in maintaining the integrity of the facility grounds and interior. The majority of the roles consisted of speaking with students, families, professors, and other facilities employees and being able to perform effective customer service duties was imperative. Other duties consist of maintaining an inventory of the various office supplies, furniture, and materials within the building, performing interior and exterior sweeps of the facilities to ensure cleanliness and order, and keeping a record of all lost and found items that have been found and claimed within the building.

Virtual

Collaborated with 2 other workers on the production of a new web apps and fullstack web development. Utilized Docker and languages such as Python, Shell, HTML, Javascript, and CSS

NCJS pushes an environment of collaboration, cooperation, and innovation. Responsibilities include research into various STEM topic, meeting set deliverable due dates, and communication between writers and editors. Main takeaways consist of the importance of individual research, self sustainability in one's work, and the experience of working in a virtual office setting.

As an intern at the Johnson Space Center, I work in the Wireless and Communications Systems Branch (EV8) within the Avionic Systems Division.My primary project was centered around analyzing the characteristics of WIFI 6 and how new WIFI 6 enabled routers interact with new and legacy technology. With the speed updates to IEEE 802.11, WIFI 6 is planned for use on the International Space Station (ISS). This project consisted of utilizing programs such as iPerf to measure throughput and building a LAN network with multiple access points and devices.Another project that I am responsible for is the creation of the second version of the High Altitude Payload for Predicting Interference and Near-Earth Spectral Spread (HAPPINESS) DemoSat payload. Started by previous interns, the original HAPPINESS satellite was designed to analyze the amount of cellular band noise as a function of altitude. The goal of this satellite is to determine if the cell towers on Earth will pose as a problem for future LTE projects at high altitudes, as far up as the ISS or even the Moon. Through research, I quickly came up to speed on the first version of the satellite concept of operation, design, and implementation. As I parsed through code, read through exit presentations, and put together my own understanding of the satellite with minimal help, I developed a better and more in-depth understanding of the system and its components. The previous version of the satellite measured band interference in the 900-1200 MHz range. However, to improve functionality, a high frequency software defined radio (SDR) will be utilized in order to measure upwards of 2 GHz. The radio, HackRF One, requires different libraries than the previous RTL-SDR to function and I am currently integrating the radio by implementing SoapySDR on Raspbian and am making changes to the existing data collection code.

As a student of the L'SPACE NASA Proposal Writing and Evaluation Experience (NPWEE) Academy, I was teamed with 14 other university students and NASA professionals to write a New Technology Report (NTR) on an original design. As the project manager, I was directly responsible for setting virtual meeting times, creating meeting agendas, organizing team branches, delegating tasks to each branch, communicating with branch heads, and designing deliverables such as Gantt charts, team organizational charts, development budgets and pert charts using Microsoft Office and specifically Microsoft Excel. The technology that my team decided to pursue was a cooling device that could be utilized to safely return Lunar ice to Earth without altering the natural conditions. The most critical condition to consider was the temperature of the ice, whereas the pressure was more manageable. After studying a phase diagram and conversing with subject matter experts, Lunar ice was concluded to be in phase XI, the orthorhombic phase of water. The largest challenge that was faced was the fact that there was no incumbent technology to base the design on. The device was an original creation and as a result, key performance parameters (KPP's) from other ice carrying vessels could not be used. To solve this, new KPP's were developed. Although the device itself was hypothetical, the team did submit a new technology report to NASA as the first step in development. This experience demonstrated to me the effort that goes into creating new technology and the process in which many engineers spend their careers. Through my leadership role, I enhanced my communication skills, learned about team dynamics, and improved my engineering skills.

As a student of the L'SPACE Mission Concept Academy, I worked with 10 other university students from across the nation to produce a preliminary design report (PDR) on a hypothetical deep space mission to Mars. The mission included specific budget, mass, and volume constraints and the finished PDR was over 118 pages in length. As the engineering lead for my team, I was responsible for coordinating the engineering team meetings, communicating and delegating tasks on weekly and half-week bases. Through the engineering process, many designs were considered and adapted before finally reaching the final design of the team's rover. A challenge that I was faced with, however, was the creation of a rover for the mission. I had little experience using CAD and had to familiarize myself with SolidWorks and NX Siemens as I designed the rover. I was able to put the finished rover design in an assembly file and ended up completing the design ahead of schedule. Other duties consisted of creating heatmaps for the rover using black-body radiation equations, specifying entry, descent, and landing (EDL) procedures, calculating entry angle and heat shield design, performing cost analysis and communicating with instrument companies, developing manufacturing and testing plans, and creating risk matrices. This experience opened my eyes to the extensiveness of an actual mission and the steps that need to be taken for it to succeed. The experiences in CAD also prepared me for my classes, which utilized SolidWorks for the design of wings, propellers, and other various plane parts.