Professional Projects

Having always wanted to be a career pilot, and giving it a go my freshman year of college, I discovered piloting planes wasn't nearly as exciting as I always assumed it would be, so I returned from out of state to my hometown university and pivoted to mechanical engineering as I was still interested in the design of flying vehicles, and it was the closest thing to aerospace engineering available at that school. 

The closest thing to an aerospace focus at Oregon State University at the time was the mechanical engineering thermal-fluid focus, though even that was only loosely tied to aerospace at best. However, despite this degree in thermal fluid sciences and a master's thesis in micro-scale heat transfer, I still managed to have a career in aerospace structures, which is largely thanks to the OSU Mars Rover project, as it gave me the experience that landed my first job out of school.