William Zhang Email & Phone Number

Austin, Texas, United States

• Led a team of four to develop flight software in C/C++ using NASA’s F Prime framework for The SpaceCraft for Optical-based Position Estimation (SCOPE)• Developed mission logic software components, including a mission status state machine and autonomous fault diagnosis.• Collaborated with other subsystem teams to define software requirements, communication interfaces and test procedures.• Handled Git repository maintenance, including version control, conflict resolution, and branch management.• Wrote tutorials to train new members on software development tools (Git, Linux, Docker, Virtual Machines).

Greenbelt, Maryland, United States

• Developed a near-real-time crater detection algorithm integrated into NASA’s Onboard AI Research (OnAIR) platform.• Refactored and wrote unit tests in Python for adapters used to pipeline data from embedded flight software to OnAIR.• Created and documented a containerized demonstration of OnAIR integration with core Flight System (cFS) using Docker.• Trained a computer vison model (YOLOv8) in PyTorch to detect craters from Lunar surface images with >75% precision.• Optimized algorithm to run under 20 ms per frame on Coral Edge TPU by using a TfLite runtime and parameter quantization.

Austin, Texas, United States

I co-designed and developed a Processor in the Loop (PIL) simulation, enhancing flight software testing for a university NanoSat project. Following the Agile methodology, a fellow intern and I engineered modular applications for real-time data reception and processing from satellite sensors as well as data simulation tools emulating physical, sensor-generated data. We implemented a GitLab CI/CD pipeline for automated app cross-compiling, testing, and deployment, aligning with DevOps practices. Our documentation of project milestones on Confluence ensured collaborative progress tracking and future knowledge sharing. Our collaborative efforts resulted in a company-wide presentation demonstrating our work as well as insights into problem-solving and teamwork.

Austin, Texas, United States

I generated data for a volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor from experimental data using basic signal processing techniques. I developed a GUI to easily view, generate, and save sensor data.

Austin, Texas, United States

I assisted graduate students investigating micro cold spray (MCS), a micro scale manufacturing technique. I used optical profilometry to create 3D topographical profiles of MCS deposits and estimate their densities.