Office of Commercial Space Transportation

I was in a 3-year rotational development program, working in 3 different roles encompassing systems engineering for aerospace systems, with a focus on launch vehicle, ground system, and spacecraft programs. In order, these roles were Mission Assurance Systems Engineer, Software Systems Engineer, and Space Systems Engineer.

I worked as an assistant for the Design Cultures and Creativity Honors Program for the annual Capstone Fair, which showcases semester-long projects made by second-year students. The fair was held virtually for the first time in 2021. I worked on the Book Design team, designing the page templates for a digital book showcasing information and images about the projects. I maintained a spreadsheet that tracked student book material submissions, making sure they were received on time. I frequently communicated with the Web Design and Capstone Fair Planning teams, providing them with required information and materials, and requesting the same as needed. During the fair, I helped facilitate live-audience Q&A sessions on Zoom following student project presentations.

I graded weekly homework assignments and exams for 90 students in a third-year aerospace undergraduate course on orbital mechanics. I frequently communicated with the professor and teaching assistant for assignment clarification and to stay up-to-date on course content. Outside of my job duties, I occasionally responded to student requests for one-on-one help with homework/studying.

During two summer breaks and one winter break in college, I worked in the Engineering Design and Development Branch (EDDB) of the Instrumentation Development Division (IDD) of the Test Technology Directorate at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center (ATC), the U.S. Army's premier test site for vehicles, weapons, ammunition, equipment, etc. The role of the EDDB is to design, build, and analyze various items, fixtures, assemblies, etc. to support the testing across the various directorates (Automotive, Firepower, Plans & Operations, Survivability & Lethality, Warfighter) at ATC. As a mechanical engineering intern, I tagged along with some of my co-workers on their projects, doing some design and analysis work. I gained a lot of hands-on experience using tools, machines, 80/20, and SolidWorks. My most significant projects were designing the rear wheel assembly for a mobile shelter for transporting a tank and conducting finite element analysis on a spreader bar to verify calculations performed.

The Space Utility Vehicle is a project being developed at the University of Maryland Space Systems Lab. It is a prototype single-person spacecraft that could one day be used for extravehicular activity. I performed research in the lab with four other students, tasked with developing a foot-restraint mechanism to keep astronauts in-place while in microgravity. We successfully designed, built, and tested multiple foot-restraint mechanisms with 80/20 (extruded aluminum). Simulated microgravity human-factors testing was conducted in the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility on campus. We presented an initial mechanism design and results for our freshman class. We then designed and built a more ergonomic, second mechanism and presented the testing and results at the 2018 AIAA Region I Student Conference at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.