Ethan Tsai Email & Phone Number

University Of California, Los Angeles

-Managed a NASA/USAF/NSF satellite mission from phase B-F-Under my leadership, ELFIN has become the CubeSat with the highest science return across both NASA and NSF's entire CubeSat fleet, with over 30 publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals and counting-The entire CubeSat was custom designed, built, tested, and operated in-house at UCLA-I have led a multidisciplinary team (size between 20-60) at a highly technical level, managing scope, schedule, stakeholder deliverables, budget, and project level risk mitigation while also directly overseeing spacecraft integration and testing, launch, spacecraft operations, and science operations-Significant experience in attitude determination/control, systems engineering, embedded systems, thermal design, and process implementation.

University Of California, Los Angeles

+Responsible for attitude determination tools and control law algorithms using various sensors and actuators that meet science mandated requirements in a magnetically clean fashion+Built robust orbit and attitude propagator with accurate rigid body dynamics, orbit perturbations, magnetic field, and spacecraft properties using MatLab, Simulink, and SimMechanics+Tested and evaluated an attitude determination tool which uses a blocked bootstrap Monte Carlo simulation for error analysis+Formulated and tested various control law algorithms +++Used filter analysis to design a robust FIR filter for computationally cheap spin control +++Devised a new way to perform precession maintenance maneuvers that is exceedingly practical and easily operated +++Derived an algorithm to perform reor maneuvers and developed the tool that actually does it +++Control law verification performed both in high fidelity simulations and in hardware tests using Helmholtz coils and air bearing platforms+Developed, tested, and integrated critical flight hardware +++Performed research into coil design which led to a 60% mass reduction while maintaining efficiency and durability +++Devised rigorous testing procedures and hardware to ensure functionality of these never-flown-before coils, which included high temperature long-term thermal cycling and vibration testing of up to 22 Gs+Worked closely with Mission Operations team to ensure compatibility and efficiency with ground software+Added Wi-Fi capabilities through UART to flight hardware and GSE for rapid and efficient prototyping in various conditions+Designed and built a degausser capable of 40 Gauss AC for GSE to perm/deperm the spacecraft for magnetics testing+Capable of leading large teams and collaborating effectively in a highly technical multidisciplinary environment

University Of California, Los Angeles

+First authored 3+ papers on magnetospheric wave particle interactions+Coauthored 17+ papers on mangetospheric physics

University Of California, Los Angeles

+First authored a paper in the Physics of Plasmas Journal that was selected by the editor+Studying ion dynamics in the magnetotail current sheet with an electrostatic field+Familiar with concepts in theoretical space plasma physics+Comfortable with various numerical solvers and data analysis

University Of California, Los Angeles

+Among the first group of UCLA students to be part of the Colorado Learning Assistant Model at UCLA+I work to facilitate better small-group interactions even in large enrollment courses and improve the overall education experience in the introductory Physics 1A course for scientists engineers. +Responsible for leading discussion sections and holding office hours+Can effectively teach and communicate science

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Geophysics And Space Physics

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Physics