Networking in the UF Small Satellite Community
| Name | Year(s) |
|---|---|
| Doug Pittard | 2005 |
| James Van Pelt | 2005 |
| Dante Buckley | 2005-present |
| Thomas Cowan | 2005 |
| Jeffrey Crosby | 2005-2006 |
| Veronica Arocho | 2006 |
| Michael Wong | 2006 |
| Marlana Behnke | 2006-2007 |
| Jonathan Helm | 2006 |
| Matthew Sobieski | 2006-2009 |
| Thomas Vu | 2006-2007 |
| Andres Gonzalez-Ariza | 2006 |
| Irena Li | 2005-2006 |
| Jeremy Sanford | 2006 |
| Ali Ali | 2007 |
| Alejandro Raudez | 2007 |
| David Wang | 2007 |
| Andrew Wright | 2007 |
| Bryan Jackson | 2007-present |
| Scott Payne | 2007-2008 |
| Svetlana Shkolyar | 2007-2008 |
| Joshua Holladay | 2007-2008 |
| Shawn Miller | 2007-present |
| Josh Munoz | 2008-present |
| Nick Martinson | 2008-present |
| Sal Torre | 2008-2009 |
| Darin Toscano | 2008-2009 |
| Paul Muri | 2009 |
| Sheldon Clark | 2009 |
| Mark Werrenmeyer | 2009 |
| Matt Inman | 2009 |
| Neeraj Kohli | 2009 |
| Sushant | 2009 |
Alumni Information
| Name | Degree(s) | Company | Location | Title | Project | Contact Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eduardo Villaba | BS Aerospace Engineering 2009 | University of Colorado | Boulder, Colorado | PhD Student | Eduardo Villaba | |
| Doug Pittard | BS Mechanical Engineering | G&E | Wilmington, NC | Supervisor | GEnX programs | Doug Pittard |
| James Van Pelt | BS Mech/Aerospace Engineering 2005 MS Aerospace Engineering 2006 | Lockheed Martin | Orlando, FL | Composites Material Engineer | Crew Exploration Vehicle | James Van Pelt |
| Jeff Crosby | BS Aerospace Engineering 2006 | Peace Corps | Accra, Ghana | Mathematics Teacher | Jeff Crosby | |
| Irena Li | BS Aerospace Engineering | United Space Alliance/NASA | Houston, TX | Flight Controller | Space Shuttle Mission Operations | Irena Li |
| Jonathan Gaebler | BS Aerospace Engineering | North Carolina State University | Hampton, VA | Jonathan Gaebler | ||
| Scott Payne | PhD Aerospace Engineering | Scott Payne | ||||
| Sal Torre | MS Electrical Engineering | Lockheed Martin | Tampa, FL | Sal Torre | ||
| Tom Cowan | BS Aerospace Engineering | University of Florida | Gainesville, FL | Patent Law Student | Law School | Tom Cowan |
| Veronica Arocho | BS Mechanical Engineering | Siemens | Orlando, FL | Field Engineer | Siemen's Power Generation | Veronica Arocho |
| Matthew Sobieski | BS Mechanical Engineering | Boeing | Seattle, WA | Matthew Sobieski | ||
| Tzu Yu Lin | BS Mechanical Engineering | Space Systems Group | Gainesville, FL | Graduate Researcher | SwampSat Lead | Tzu Yu Lin |
| Vivek Nagabhushan | MS Mechanical Engineering | Space Systems Group | Gainesville, FL | Graduate Researcher | SwampSat Project Manager | Vivek Nagabhushan |
| Katie Cason | BS Mechanical Engineering | Space Systems Group | Gainesville, FL | Katie Cason | ||
| Dante Buckley | MS Aerospace Engineering | Space Systems Group | Gainesville, FL | Dante Buckley | ||
| Frederick Leve | MS Aerospace Engineering | Space Systems Group/AFRL | Albuquerque, NM | Fred Leve | ||
| Darin Toscano | BS Aerospace Engineering | Flight Dynamics and Optimization Laboratory | Gainesville, FL | Darin Toscano | ||
| Thomas Vu | BS Mechanical Engineering | Gainesville, FL | ||||
| Frank Bergschneider | BS Mechanical Engineering | Gainesville, FL |
Internships/Industry Experiences
Company: General Electric
Location: Wilmington, NC
Position: 2nd Shift Supervisor
Comments: "Currently, I'm in General Electric's Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) for their Aircraft Engines business. I'm working in Wilmington, North Carolina in a production shop making the High Pressure Turbine parts for the GE90 (the big engine) and the new GEnX programs working, functionally, as a 2nd shift supervisor."
-Doug Pittard
Company: Microcosm Inc.
Location: Hawthorne, CA
Position: Systems Engineering Intern
Comments: "I obtained this internship through a connection that was made while working on SSDC's Inflate-A-Brake (G-SAT). Microcosm was helpful in providing analytical tools to do orbital lifetime predictions, and the following summer I was working for them in a range of capacities: mechanical design for optic sensors, orbital mechanics studies of close constellations, magnetorquer characterization for attitude control, and inter-planetary mission analysis (delta-V budgets). Being a small company (30-40 employees at the time), I had more breadth than depth with my tasks, and I'd recommend a small company for anyone unsure of which area of aerospace engineering (or any field) in which they want to specialize. If you want to dig a little deeper in a specific area, I'd recommend a large company. Microcosm is in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and the area is a hotbed of aerospace companies (Northrop, Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, etc), so besides the beautiful weather and beaches, there is plenty of opportunity to set up interviews, network, etc. Feel free to email me if interested in Northrop Grumman (http://www.st.northropgrumman.com) or for general inquiries in getting an internship/job."
-Tom Cowan
Company: Digital Infrared Imaging
Location: Apopka, Florida
Position: Engineering Internship
Comments:"I interned as an engineer with a small but unique company in Apopka, Florida called Digital Infrared Imaging (DI for short). DI was my first experience in industry and I will never forget them. The company has undergone some transition and is now known as ICX Imaging Systems (www.thermalsecurity.com). Though their company didn't have any aerospace research for me to conduct, I received a thorough introduction to Electrical Engineering which is fundamental in satellite systems. I worked on several projects with senior engineers ranging from conducting EMI interference tests, researching CMOS technology, and overseeing code for various experiments. But I also was able to get a hands on experience from everyone learning how each member contributed. I was quite impressed with their productions, engineering, sales, IT and other divisions. As a result of my internship, I proposed an Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) project with them. I managed the S.P.I.S (Self-Contained Portable Infrared System) team- a tandem of five mechanical, electrical and computer science engineers. The final design report included a functioning prototype of an handheld infrared and visible imaging device."
-Dante Buckley
Company: IBM, Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Location: Yorktown Heights, NY
Position: Systems Modeling and Integration Intern
Comments: "This internship was a really good introduction to research in a corporate/industrial (rather than academic) setting, though not specifically related to space systems. My main focus was investigating airflow and heat dissipation through fin arrays (in other words, heat sink design) using a number of finite element modeling/analysis tools, and building experimental scale models. Most of the internships offered at Watson are targeted at graduate students, but generally they try to align the work with a particular person's interests - it's a lot like grad school research in that aspect. "
-Irena Li
Company: NASA Goodard Space Flight Center
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Position: Research Assistant
Comments: "Working at NASA was an incredible experience and a dream come true. Working at the same facilities where the Hubble Space Telescope and so many other planetary probes were built was awe inspiring. There literally hundreds of project going on at any one time, all contributing to the development of science and space exploration. I in particular worked at the Geostationary Environmental Operational Satellite (GOES) office, specifically with the GOES-N/13 satellite, which was launched less than a year before the internship. This satellite had been placed on a "storage" orbit for later use, when one of the two other weather satellites in the constellation breaks down. My job, along with another intern from France was to be able to obtain useful data gathered by certain instruments on GOES-N/13 that were turned on for brief moments through the year. The orbit mechanics of a satellite in storage are slightly different than in operational mode, therefore multiple corrections needed to be applied to the telemetry and different theories needed to be tested as possible explanations for certain behaviors in the data. The reason behind this effort is to have a software suite that will make all necessary data corrections for a satellite in "storage" orbit, so that in case of an environmental emergency a particular instrument could be turned on in an instant and get a third verification, making predictions more accurate. The instruments the intern team focused on, were the Dual-Magnetometer and Space Environment Monitor. The final customer of this data is NOAA, with whom a permanent line of communication was created to solve most of the problems.
While dealing with all these issues I was able to speak to all kinds people all related to the space industry but not all engineers or scientists, however all had a passion about space and actively did their part to continue our quest to the stars. I visited incredible places such as NOAA's Satellite Operations Control Center (SOCC) and saw what it takes to operate dozens of satellites. I also visited NOAA's Space Environment Center in Boulder Colorado, where all the space "weather" forecasting is made and warnings issued for the entire world. These experiences opened my eyes tremendously, letting me know that there is more to space than just aerospace and everybody in this sector plays a crucial role in our development as a space fairing civilization; we as students, just need to find what that role is."
-Rodrigo Ocampo
Company: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Position:Flight Dynamics Analysis Intern
Comments: "This was my first real experience in the area. Goddard Space Flight Center is the largest community of engineers and scientists dedicated to learn more about our planet, the Solar System and the Universe. Working at the Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch (Guidance, Navigation and Control Division), learning from the many engineers and scientists, and being exposed to the technology and the great environment at Goddard was quite an amazing opportunity. I had the chance to work on two different projects, under two different mentors, the first of which gave me a chance to learn the basics in orbital mechanics. I worked on frozen orbit analysis for Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), a sun-synchronous satellite which developed and validated new instruments and technologies. Previously recorded GPS data was given to me for analysis, and I had an opportunity to learn about the classical orbital elements and how satellites truly behave under the different gravitational effects due to the Earth's oblateness, the Moon and the Sun. By creating different plots with this data I was able to identify different stages in the mission, from start to finish, including all the maneuvers done for orbit maintenance.
The second project gave me the chance to look at how interplanetary missions are planned. I was to do post-Saturn orbit insertion maneuvering analysis on a flagship mission to Enceladus, one of Saturn's many moons. The project was quite simple: to make small changes in different parameters on an already determined orbit. Then, these small errors have to be fixed by a correction maneuver (orbit trim maneuver) and my job was to determine when it is best to make this correction. This small project helped refine the already existing delta-V budget for the mission.
Working for NASA on this internship made it clear on what I want to do and helped me determine my goals for the future."
-Eduardo Villalba
Company: Reynolds, Smith, and Hills Inc.
Location: Merritt Island, FL
Position: Engineering Intern
Comments:"I worked for six months with an A&E firm (Architectural and Engineering firm) Reynolds, Smith, and Hill Inc. (RS&H). This was my first real experience in what an A&E firm actually does and more specifically how mechanical engineers are involved. I worked for the Aerospace and Defense office in Merritt Island, FL right next door to Kennedy Space Center. RS&H designed most of the facilities at KSC, from the well known Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), to the launchpads the shuttle lifts off from. I worked on several projects, the big one in the office being the new mobile launch tower for NASA's Constellation program. I worked mostly on mechanical systems such as HVAC and fire protection systems for the launch tower. I also worked on another project designing a hydraulic steering system for a 'rocket cart' to move a rocket on. I enjoyed my experience with RS&H as it gave me a clearer picture of what I wanted to do for a career in mechanical engineering."
-Thomas P Vu
Company: NASA Kenndy Space Center
Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida
Position: Ground Systems Division Spacecraft processing Office
Comments: In the summer of 2006, I was chosen to be a Florida Space Academy participant at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida funded by Space Florida and the Florida Space Grant Consortium. In the summer of 2007, I was an intern for Mary D. Hall and John Leavitt, project managers of the Constellation Project in the Ground Systems Division Spacecraft Processing Office at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Their office manages mission planning for Ares launch vehicles and Orion Crew Vehicles processing functions for the Constellation project, which aims to land humans on the moon and Mars in hopes of one day establishing settlements there. She worked on a Spacecraft Processing Document Library and Document Tree using the NASA-specific ICE and WindChill web-centric environments. I've also presented a presentation titled, "Document Standardization, WindChill Update, and Orion Schedule and Documents," to my project management team of about 50 engineers at their annual offsite meeting.
At KSC, I also did many other projects in the past two summers. I published articles on the Applied Physics Laboratory at KSC for NASA and external technical journals under another mentor, Stan Starr. Participating in the NASA Florida Space Academy (FSA) program, she was on a team that designed, built, and launched a weather balloon payload which reached 100,000 ft in the atmosphere and transmitted real-time video. While at KSC, I also wrote for Spaceport News, and NASA's Academy Sharing Knowledge (ASK) magazine. I'm also a freelance technical writer. I write for technology features for the UK-based technology magazine, the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The magazine has a demographic of 150,000 engineers and other technical members in 37 countries.
I'm a freelance consultant for Space Florida's directors, Tony Gannon and Pat McCarthy and FSGC's director, Dr. Jaydeep Mukherjee. She has written about my internship experiences for press releases, and presented at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Campaign Conference in Cocoa, Florida, and at the FSGC meeting at the University of North Florida as part of her work.
-Svetlana Shkolyar
Company: NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)
Location:Hampton Roads, VA
Position:Robotics Engineering Intern
Comments: "I obtained this internship partly because of my experience with systems integration on the Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) Alpha prototype. The CMG was developed in house by SSG members and is validated on the Spacecraft Orientation Buoyancy Experiment Kiosk (SOBEK) testbed. At LARC I worked with an interdisciplinary team on a Platform for Scientific Instruments (PSI).
PSI is intended to test a myriad of scientific payloads being developed in-house and LARC partners as well as testing a variety of potential field based autonomous navigation and behavior algorithms. During the summer of 2008, I worked on the software side of the drive system, being primarily responsible for translating user or autonomous commands into motor commands. I also helped optimize the FPGA code needed to drive the robot's wheels and worked with several others to define the interfaces between the FPGA, the real-time interface, and the embedded PCs that will ultimately control the robot during autonomous operation. This was an excellent experience and I learned a great deal about how to work with a diverse team, integrating large software efforts, and hardest of all, getting to work by 9 am every day."
-Andrew Waldrum
Company: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (LaRC)
Location:Greenbelt, MD
Position:Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch
Comments: "This was my second summer internship at NASA/GSFC and I had the chance to work on LCROSS. LCROSS, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, is a mission managed by Ames Research Center with collaborations from GSFC (trajectory design) and JPL (navigation). My project consisted of developing an automation script which will be used for the verification of launch data for the mission's future launch dates. Using MATLAB as the programming language, this script is meant to interact with Analytical Graphic Inc.'s (AGI) Satellite ToolKit, which then runs all this data and verifies if all of the mission requirements and constraints are satisfied.
I also had the chance to see how these type of missions are planned and how important communication is for a mission like this, which involves other NASA centers. LCROSS is also a mission that is planned to be launched soon, so being able to be part of a mission which will provide results as soon as Spring of next year is really exciting."
-Eduardo Villalba, SSDC member
Company: Peace Corps
Location:Ghana
Position:Mathematics Teacher
Comments: "The U.S. Peace Corps has a long history of sending volunteers all over the world to help with development and cross cultural exchange. The application process is long, though standardized and pretty straight forward. I worked as a math and physics teacher in a secondary school in a small town in rural Ghana, West Africa. I was the only volunteer at my school, and worked closely with the regular Ghana Education Service faculty members. In addition to teaching I worked on some community development projects and tried to immerse myself in the culture and life of my town. It was an invaluable and unique experience which I am constantly grateful I got to participate in. While not directly related to engineering, the Peace Corps are always looking for those with science, math and computer skills to serve as teachers, their single largest project area. Those interested should check out their excellent website, or watch the Matthew Mcconaughey commercial on PBS."
-Jeffery Scott Crosby, SSDC Alumni
Company: Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Location: Seattle, Washington
Position: Engineering Intern
Comments: "I was fortunate to have interned as an engineer for the past two summers with Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, Washington. I was assigned to 737 Aircraft Interiors during my first summer in 2006 and I worked as a part of the Lavatory group. I rebuilt a customer configuration database and eventually began working directly with customers and suppliers (even processing lavatory configurations for an airline customer). When I returned to Boeing in 2007, I was assigned to the 737 Airframe Insulation group where I worked on the P-8A Program, a military sub-hunting derivative of the commercial 737. Experience with Pro-E helped me learn CATIA, a 3-D design program widely used in the aerospace industry. Throughout the summer I worked alongside engineers to modify insulation blankets in the forward section of the 737."
-Matthew Sobieski