Internships & Other Experiences

This page contains write-up on past internship and research experiences I have participated in since beginning my undergraduate education. Due to restrictions with NDA and other agreements, I cannot describe most technologies I worked on in any detail-- but I hope to introduce the fundamentals of some of the things I've worked on, as well as the stories in general. Feel free to email with any questions.

Table of Contents

1. Summer 2024 - SpaceX (Dragon Build Reliability)
2. Winter 2023 - Commnet Laboratory
3. Summer 2023 - SpaceX (Starlink UT Hardware Reliability)
4. Summer 2022 - Kratos Space (OpenSpace)

Summer 2024 - Dragon Build Reliability

It was the morning of the fall career fair, and the technical clubs were working on creating their tabling presences for the event. I requisitoned the help of public safety to assist in carting my club's materials down the hill from the academic buildings to the gymnasium. I set up my table. My flats tore up my heels.

Katie McManus approached my display. "Hi," she said. "Hi," I responded.

"Wanna work for SpaceX?" I think the conversation started vaguely like that. Suddenly I found myself interviewing for a position in Cape Canaveral for an as-of-yet-undecided launch related internship position. I had no idea what to expect, but I arrived to find I was working on Cape's build reliability team for the Dragon spacecraft. Whatever it was, coincidence, serpendipity, luck-- this was an enormous moment of serpendipity, and boy am I greatful. I had too much fun.

Myself and some friends at the NASA amateur radio club (N1KSC) enjoying Field Day.

My 2024 internship revolved primarily around 4 projects:

• A complex Python utility accounting for structures and materials factors that prescribes key flight hardware based on unique data associated with any particular Dragon vehicle
• A RF shielding solution for avionics testing during vehicle interation
• Root-cause investigation for vehicle life support systems
• Development of procedure and tooling for application of a material applied to the vehicle

Other work included a supportive role on a payload for an upcoming mission, fram2, and an internal systems automation tool.

The major skill gains here from a technical perspective included advancements in my comfort with software development for end-users, a basic understanding of structures and statics concepts (something formerly completely unknown to me), exposure to avionics systems and life support systems, and advancement my root-cause skills. The teams at Cape cover a large physical breadth (hello timezones!) as well as a large scope of specialization and skillset, requiring me to truly push myself to connect with many different people with highly varying (and often competing) priorities.

Winter 2023 - Commnet Laboratory

I withdrew from my institution for a quarter for health reasons during the Winter of 2023. Hoping to continue learning while I cycled through doctors' appointments, I reached out to Northwestern's Dr. Berry and was fortunate enough to join the Commnet Laboratory, alongside Dr. Berry and Dr. Kadota for this period of time.

At Commnet, I worked on proofing and updating MATLAB signal processing assignments, configured laboratory SDR equipment and Linux environments (utilizing the OpenAirInterface project), and got to participate in ML research pursuing solutions to dynamic spectrum allocation.

I truly can't express enough how valuable this opportunity was-- exposure to research was a great opportunity of course, but beyond that, the professors and students in the lab showed me great kindness and integrated me into their community. I was able to attend panels and lectures about incredibly interesting topics, and got to use Northwestern's amateur radio station W9BGX. This was an environment that I can only describe as being full of incredible integrity. I hope that I'll be able to go back sometime and work with everyone again.

Summer 2023 - SpaceX (Starlink UT Hardware Reliability)

In my mind, applying to work at SpaceX was always a long shot. Did I have copious amounts of project experience? Did I love what I was studying? Sure-- but I was poignantly aware that in the same way I dreamed of working in the space industry from a very young age, countless others felt the same way. So in having the opportunity to work at SpaceX and contribute to Starlink, I knew that I'd have to make the most of it no matter what.

The Hawthorne intern gang, probably shortly after dying in a D&D dungeon.

Thankfully, "making the most of it" was made a simple task. My coworkers at SpaceX were thoughtful as much as they were helpful, and beyond that, their degree of excellence was incredible. To call SpaceX a "learning experence" would be an understatement because every single day was a new opportunity to learn an absolutely incredible amount. It's the kind of thing you just can't get from school.

My work at Starlink took place in the root-cause lab, where I was responsible for resolving hardware and software investigations of every shape and size. One particular investigation I was solely responsible for had an especially large scope, involving the production line, materials, RF characteristics, circuit design, SMT... practically every aspect of the product was under scrutiny. The resolution of this investigation resulted in a 4% FPY increase.

Another integral aspect of my work was the creation of a large Python library intended for processing, visualizing, and interpreting large amounts of chronological RF characterization data from the production line.

Summer 2022 - Kratos Space (OpenSpace)

I was incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work an internship following my freshman year of college. The people at Kratos took a risk on me, and I will never forget that. The summer that followed was chock-full of exciting work and fun.

At Kratos, I was responsible for the creation of drivers to control laboratory RF hardware, which enabled robust equipment characterizations. I assisted with the transition to a new laboratory and was exposed for the first time to lab hardware ranging from signal generators, to signal analyzers, GPS timeservers, and more. It was fun and extremely informative.

I also engaged in the development of an internal OpenStack deployment that required me to dive into networking well beyond the scope I had encountered running childhood Minecraft servers.

The people at Kratos were incredibly supportive and were eager to support me in my future endeavors. The intern community developed was also incredibly strong-- I've earned friends for life.