Connor Highlander Email & Phone Number

Sterling, Virginia, United States

Systems Engineer on the ESPAStar product line

Greater St. Louis Area

I presently serve as a head of Integration and Testing at the Space Systems Research Lab (SSRL) at Saint Louis University. Some of my responsibilities include creating and maintaining accurate procedures on how to test and assemble various components of our cube-satellite, performing those tests, assembling the satellite, and passing along pertinent info to those around me. I love my position at SSRL as it not only involves hands-on work - a personal favorite of mine - but it requires a comprehensive understanding of the different component interfaces on our current space mission, MVP-A. Gathering all of the required information and sharing that efficiently built up my skills for personal communication as well as scientific communication. I was the structures subsystem team lead and as a deputy program manager in the Space Systems Research Lab, leading a team of 6 in revising designs for our satellite mission. This took the form of maintaining communication networks with the various teams and team members to provide the cube satellite projects with both primary and secondary structures to support missions and their payloads, while staying within the given requirements provided by the Innovative Systems In Space, the launch coordinator. For a period of time during 'Presentation Season' I served as PR Committee Chair, I created and updated a technical presentation for the current cube satellite mission, 'Rascal'. I presented at the St. Louis Area Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the Missouri Space Grant Consortium. The St. Louis Area Undergraduate Research Symposium published the abstract that I wrote for our project's report.Previously I served as a member of the systems subsystem. I tested and assisted with the integration of a power supply system. I coordinated and scheduled thirty plus hour long consecutive battery charge and discharge test in accordance with Nanoracks requirements and aided in the design of various circuit boards.

Greater St. Louis Area

I am proud to be an engineering intern at Neff Power, a great engineering, industrial supply and automation company. At Neff, I get to apply myself to exciting projects from a hands-on perspective, and begin to experience some of the responsibilities that come with the career that I am involved in.One thing that I love about my position is I get to work a with industry engineers and see how design plays out in the real world. I work mostly with the assembly portion of the engineering process, but I have benefited from the insight on why certain decisions were made in a 3D model of a new project were made because of what their physical assembly would be like (e.g. an anchor between two support bars on a heavy cart will be on one side instead of the other so when the cart is assembled, it's easier to remove or replace said bar). It is this kind of thinking, and the plethora of other examples I'm gathering, that have complemented what I learn in my studies so well.I enjoy the feeling of being a part of an organization that is creating new and dynamic solutions to real problems. Engineering is unique in it's unique way to engage both a logical reasoning process and creative problem solving into a stable approach to overcoming challenges. That said, dynamic solutions require dynamic analysis so when you spend most of the day ensuring that joints were made correctly and screws were tightened, it may feel distant from that creative design process, but one of the biggest lessons I am learning at Neff is how every step and every screw play an essential part if you want the end result to fit together correctly.

St. Louis Missouri

I tutor math courses ranging from college algebra to differential equations as well as all physics 1 & 2, statics, and dynamics. As a tutor, I experience education in a unique manner. Continually reviewing material with dozens of other students has given me a strong working knowledge of the subjects that I take as I not only review them often, but also explain them to a wide group of learners with different learning styles. This personal interaction has allowed me to apply part of the engineering mentality to the human learning process. I enjoy getting to analyze what the needs of a particular client are and determine how to best utilize my resources to meet their needs!

Saint Louis Missouri

I contributed to the ongoing mission to establish a clean water aid project in Kenya, by writing and reviewing project specification documents and forms.

Trujillo Province, Peru

I was the leader of a research project determining the viability of small scale solar desalination devices for use as a clean water source in small coastal communities in Peru. This project took place in two phases.1) I lead a small team of around five students in examining a need that was presented by the WindAid Institute in Trujillo Peru. There were many small fishing villages that live along the northern coast of Peru in desert regions that had strained access to water in spite of the abundance of salt water. We worked together to create a sustainable and inexpensive desalination table that could be built in the community.2) I then traveled down to Peru in the summer of 2017 and worked at the WindAid Institute while examining the viability of our proposed system. Once my design was reviewed, I gathered resources and implemented this design in the town of Playa Blanca Peru - a fishing village of less than 200 people where it currently sits today! I absolutely loved the hands on aspect of this project and the helpful nature of it. For me, it was a brilliant combination of physical work, logical design, and just enough giving back!

Trujillo Province, Peru

As a part of the WindAid water desalination project, I spent one month in Peru working manufacturing wind turbines. During my time, the dedicated team at WindAid and I managed to manufacture several wind turbines, one of which is providing electricity for a lovely family in Peru, and maintain several more. As an aspiring aerospace engineer, the mechanics of wind turbines are incredibly interesting to me so hand crafting air foils in Peru in service to others is one of the highlights of my college career.I learned a lot from my time in Trujillo working in such a different environment. The atmosphere and work culture are so much different and it necessitated the ability to think on my feet and learn quickly. Communication was a big challenge. I had only a basic knowledge of Spanish at the time which did not include the vocabulary required to talk about how curvature in an airfoil can be used to optimize the angle of attack across the whole blade. Learning to be an effective employee by trial and fire at times stretched my adaptive capabilities, but I am proud of how I developed as an engineer in Peru, and even more so of what we, as a team of a dozen individuals was able to accomplish.

Greater St. Louis Area

Next Gen Insoles, a green energy design team, developed a working prototype of a piezoelectric generator shoe insole. As a part of this lab, I designed and soldered circuits, developed a functioning knowledge of how piezoelectric materials work and followed testing procedures.

Edwardsville Il

I was a third grade camp counselor at the YMCA Meier Center in Edwardsville Illinois. This was a good experience, all-be-it different from my professional interests. I personally love kids and the outlook that everything in life is an adventure! While that is not true for every kid or for any kid all the time, kids give me energy and it is that wondrous mentality that originally fueled my interest in engineering so this job helped develop me in ways I didn't expect for my continued studies.I may have mentioned that I think one of my personal skills is the ability to communicate effectively to people. In this, my time at the YMCA was humbling. Talking to over the 70 children in third grade at the summer camp took a very unique style that mostly involved persistence. Much like the aerospace industry has an enormous collection of acronyms and abbreviations, each individual child has their own vocabulary that express their individuality. My ability to do my job well often hinged solely upon my skill at interpreting and employing each child's personal vocabulary of sounds and actions. Where one kid throws things when he or she gets upset, another may get quiet. Those two situations need massively different responses.At the YMCA, I learned the importance of adaptability as both an individual and a part of a team.

Fairview Heights Il

As a Formalwear Salesman, I sold and rented tuxedos and suits. This involved close work with customers, tailoring their shopping experience to their individual wants and needs.

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering, Junior

Activities and Societies: Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, Space Systems Research Lab, Engineers Without Borders, WindAid Research Group.

Minor, Computer Science, Junior

I am also pursuing a minor in Computer Science at Saint Louis University. This stems from the engaging courses in computer science.