Peter K. Dillon Email and Phone Number

I recently graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. I have always had a passion for all things aerospace. Growing up near a major international airport only fed this passion. While at St. Louis U. High, I competed and became a team captain in cross country and track. During my time in high school I cultivated my study skills, a passion for math and science, and inspired a love of learning. These led me to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas. At the University of Kansas, I was able to gain hands on engineering and professional experience. This came through class projects and extracurricular activities. The most valuable way I gained engineering experience was through my two-year involvement in Jayhawk Aero Design (JAD). This club actively competes in the AIAA’s annual DBF competition. In my first year, I was an aerodynamic team member, then a co-deputy lead of the aerodynamic team. In my second year, I was named an aerodynamic team co-lead. In these roles I estimated the aircraft’s drag coefficient, determined the aircraft’s static and dynamic stability, estimated the shear stress/bending moment in the wing, estimated stall, created a MATLAB script to estimate power usage, and created an in house MATLAB script used to estimate the performance of different planforms using airfoil data. I was also able to assist in the construction of the aircraft. I learned how to do carbon fiber layups, how to 3D print parts, system integration, and more. I also assisted in flight testing of multiple aircraft. This included helping set up the aircraft for flight, ensuring systems were operational, setting center of gravity for static margin, and more. Another valuable way I was able to gain valuable engineering experience was through a system identification class project. Through this, I was able to learn the fundamentals of flight test engineering. I was also the project manager for the project. This meant I was responsible for delegating tasks to team members, ensuring team members were completing tasks on schedule, and assisting them whenever necessary. The goal of this project was to construct a small UAS from a kit, collect data from flight testing, then use time-domain based methodology to extract the system’s transfer function from the flight data. To excite the different dynamic modes, a physics based Linear Time Invariant (LTI) model was used. The different dynamic modes were identified, and inputs were designed using mathematical methods. These were checked using MATLAB/SIMULINK.