As a Future Technical Leader at Northrop Grumman, I leverage my expertise in systems engineering and project management to tackle diverse program challenges across the air and space domain, from initial proposal phases through program startup and detailed design reviews.In my first year, I expanded my systems engineering knowledge, contributing to various government program proposals in space exploration. Notably, I collaborated with the systems engineering lead on a cislunar cargo logistics proposal, optimizing design parameters to reduce total costs by tens of millions of dollars while meeting mission requirements. Subsequently, I led a multidisciplinary research effort exploring the feasibility of a high-downmass cislunar cargo return vehicle and presented the findings to executive leadership. Additionally, I gained insights into the government RFP process and contributed to the programmatic and technical proposal responses for two other space programs. In my second year, I honed my systems engineering skills during the detailed design phase of a government space program, ensuring on-time payload integration despite tight launch schedules. Additionally, I demonstrated proficiency in earned value management and scheduling as a cost account manager and integrated product team lead, helping facilitate successful transitions from design to manufacturing/testing. Transitioning to an airborne program, I facilitated agile modeling and simulation software planning and development as the program scrum master, aligning processes with earned value metrics.Overall, my tenure at Northrop Grumman has allowed me to deepen my technical expertise, develop leadership skills, and contribute to innovative solutions in the aerospace industry.

As a graduate research assistant at the ASDL, I worked to advance the state of aerospace at the conceptual and preliminary design level by leveraging systems engineering principles to build parametric and physics-based aircraft design environments. My work included:1) using the Pacelab conceptual design software to design and optimize novel electric and hybrid-electric tactical transport aircraft for the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)2) developing a hydrogen engine model for the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) environment and analyzing the impact of a hydrogen fuel transition on the design and performance of a 150pax and 210pax Tube and Wing aircraft using the Flight Optimization System (FLOPS) environment3) adapting an in-house python design toolkit to parametrically resize an OpenVSP model, generate internal structural geometry, and determine aerodynamic performance metrics based on load conditions in order to estimate aircraft wingbox weight using Nastran and Hypersizer for both a transonic truss braced wing (Boeing X-66A) and hybrid wing body aircraft (JetZero).

As a Space Systems Architect Intern at the Aerospace Corporation, I was able to apply Model-Based Systems Engineering to both model validation of a Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) model and the architectural definition of a cislunar position, navigation, and timing (PNT) solution for the United States Space Force (USSF). The goal of the cislunar PNT project for the USSF was to perform concurrent engineering trade studies and present two bleeding-edge configurations that can address the gap in PNT services between the present day and when the NASA LunaNet constellation could become active. I had the honor of co-leading a team of eleven interns, each responsible for an independent subsystem, over five weeks of literature review, design tool creation, and multidisciplinary system analysis and optimization. The final results included an inverted GPS system and this same system augmented with an optimized smallsat constellation in five key orbits in cislunar space. The third configuration including lunar ground-based inverted GPS broadcast towers was investigated but not analyzed. These results were presented to both internal and external stakeholders, landing the project full-time funding and staffing for future investigation.

The mission of Clemson Rocket Engineering is to make space more accessible to students who otherwise might have no collegiate exposure to the industry. My role in managing a multidisciplinary team of 65 students across 6 subteams and creating opportunities for my peers led me to:- create the new member education and Prometheus competition starter rocket program- aggressively expand access to capital through early partnerships with the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium to lay the foundation for the university's first-ever rocket propulsion laboratory- work with university administrators and educators to expand curriculum offerings- partner with a local high school to have an AP physics class design the payload for Prometheus rocket- work more closely with Clemson PEER & WiSE to expand access of underrepresented groups to aerospace - design and build an active drag system to optimize competition rocket velocity, pitch, and yaw based on real-time system dynamics

As Vice President, I oversaw the activities of the Manager of Community Outreach, Safety Manager, Manager of Social Media, RockOn workshop team and ThinSat Team. I communicated directly with the propulsion, structures, flight dynamics, avionics, and payload sub-teams and sub-team leads to decide rocket design parameters and club objectives alongside the club President.

I am responsible for managing the entire rocket's and all subsystems' structural component design, integration, manufacturing, and testing. I manage a team of 10+ individuals of varying backgrounds that help me with these tasks as well as maintaining a constant line of communication with the other subteams. Some of my projects include: Carbon wrapped nomex honeycomb fins, an autonomous active drag system, a vibration dampening payload bay, and aluminum bulkhead machining.

As a Peer Leader and mathematics tutor for the Academic Success Center at Clemson University, I was responsible for helping students with difficult course material by empowering them to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Specifically, I worked with students across five mathematics classes ranging from pre-calculus to second-year calculus with the goal of guiding them towards becoming self-directed learners. I utilized techniques such as Socratic questioning, group exercises, and Bloom's Taxonomy to foster student growth and in the process become more communicative and adaptive to the situation myself. By observing each student either individually or in a group setting I was able to more effectively help them bridge gaps in understanding and supply them with the intellectual tools to do so themselves once they have moved on. Over the course of my time tutoring students, I learned to more swiftly change my teaching approach to the individual needs of the particular student, even when in groups of up to over ten students across the five courses I covered. This helped with my situational adaptability by putting me in environments of constant change as course subjects and students' needs continuously adjusted with time. My ability to strategically communicate information to individuals within my field but across various levels of understanding has also improved and I've learned how to effectively question and reach the heart of an issue faster. Each person has a unique way of problem-solving and by being able to communicate more effectively I learned to roll away discrepancies in understanding that leave the student better able to think metacognitively about the way they learn and apply information. Ultimately in the process of creating self-directed students, I strove to tutor myself out of a job as they became more confident in their own abilities to solve complex and foreign problems.

As a summer research intern at Sandia National Laboratory's Advanced Materials Laboratory, I was responsible for mixing, direct-ink write printing, and studying a series of nearly 200+ silicone lattices to build and parameterize the design space needed for any future projects concerning this mixture of silicone and its percent compression per unit of force and material behavior. This work laid the foundation to formally begin the same process on a series of silicones with different durometers with the hopes of eventually building a document covering the entire silicone compression design space. Part of this project entailed me creating a program for visualizing and processing the data from the mechanical testing of the lattices using Matlab. The end result was a standalone Matlab Application comprised of over 2000 lines of code allowing the user to load, categorize, visualize, perform mathematical operations on, and export the data all within the GUI. I was also responsible for designing and printing any structures needed to mitigate critical printer component deflection during printing, helping to ensure consistent and repeatable prints throughout the duration of the machine and during the print itself. Sandia National Laboratories Unlimited Release Statement: "The first additively manufactured, polymer-based component was selected for insertion in a nuclear weapon modernization program. The components are printed on-demand using the direct ink write technique. The additively manufactured silicone pads are printed with well-defined porosity and structure that allows them to be fully tailored for compression performance, a disruptive breakthrough in design and manufacturing science for nuclear weapons. Compression pads are required in weapon systems to distribute mechanical loads, provide compliant interfaces to mitigate shock and vibration and manage assembly tolerances."

In an effort to significantly bring down the cost of space travel and make use of in-situ resources on Mars, our research aims to bind Martian soil into a viable construction material for future manned Martian habitats through biocementation or UV/thermal curing of Epoxies.