Being born into a family of fabricators and engineers, I've wanted to be an engineer since the beginning of middle school. I recall the first engineering experience that was of me fixing our car with my dad after it had been in an accident. Working with my dad in repairing our car ignited the spark in me to learn more about engineering. Once I got back to school we did small projects for the science festival at my school, one of which I still remember was kind of an invention where we made an automatic board cleaner using pulleys and iron ceiling wire.
During my schooling years, I had different ambitions, for instance, during middle school I really wanted to be a Marine Engineer, then during my community college years, I opted for Software Engineering just because I was near Silicon Valley which is the heart of software technologies. But during that time once I got my internship with NASA L'SPACE Academy, I was very inspired by the knowledge I gained about rockets, aircraft, and outer space. This brought a change in me and I felt that I need to opt for Aerospace Engineering instead of pursuing Software Engineering. Then I changed my major from Software Engineering to Aerospace Engineering.
My dreams changed and this was the final change in me as I thought that I found what I want to be and what I want to do for my entire life and build a career. While pursuing Aerospace Engineering I have come through many opportunities which increased my knowledge about aerospace. I undertook a 3-month learning opportunity at NASA L’SPACE Academy. I was delighted to be presented with the opportunity to utilize the skills gained during my studies to solve problems in the engineering world. During the course of this studying opportunity, I played a key role as a Deputy Project Manager.
Formula cars are another inspiration of mine to pursue and keep moving forward in Aerospace Engineering. I was lucky enough to get an opportunity through my university to be a part of the Spartans Racing Team and design some very important parts for their combustion and electric Formula SAE cars on Solidworks, which were then manufactured and assembled on the cars. Another project that I did was of an RC Jet Boat which was designed on Autodesk Inventor and 3D printed. This was a smaller project which did not have many extreme constraints.
Then designing a wind turbine tower for one of my projects and measuring the stress and strain of the tower design using weights increased my technical knowledge in m on making and designing components that have good stress and strain qualities. Measuring turbine efficiency by blowing air on the turbine blades was one of the parts of this project which increased my knowledge of designing efficient turbine blades for aircraft.
My senior project was about MediFly, which is a hybrid electric aircraft designed to deliver blood and vaccines to places that are not accessible by any other means of transportation. The main objective of this project was to design an emergency medical delivery supply hybrid-electric aircraft with high endurance level. High endurance is an advantage for the aircraft with a longer flight time. Determining the weight and balance of the aircraft was an important segment of this project as it defines many aspects of the structure of the aircraft like the structure of the wings, and selecting the type of airfoil. Integrating the aircraft with the ability to take off and land vertically makes it proficient in delivering supplies at locations that are hard to access with an aircraft and this makes the aircraft operable without a runway. I was the lead designer of my team for MediFly and I designed the complete aircraft (fuselage, insulated payload cabin, wings, tail, landing gear, motor housing, ailerons, rudder, and propellers) with the drawings for each part of the aircraft from scratch on SOLIDWORKS and Siemens NX. Using PDM software to keep all the files updated by each team member was essential to avoid confusion in making reports of the work that was done in the project. Integrating the switch to the combustion engine on the flight after the vertical takeoff was necessary as the aircraft is hybrid electric and only operates on electric for the takeoff and landing. Calculating the Stability and Control of the aircraft from the data collected from the SOLIDWORKS and Siemens NX model and manufacturing the aircraft from scratch using materials like fiberglass, carbon fiber, Styrofoam, and wood was one of the important phases of this project to make it a reality. In the end, testing and making some final changes was the final stage of the project before the presentation.
My studies have provided me with broad proficiency in the use of mechanical and aerospace engineering methods, tools, software packages, and techniques. Alongside this, I have developed sound communication skills while delivering presentations to large audiences. As such, in May 2022 I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University, and am confident that I can make an instant impact in an engineering role.
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