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Jun 14, 2014:
Graduated UW with BSAAE degree!
Class Projects
Over the years I’ve completed a variety of projects for different classes. This included research, design work, and performance modeling. Here are some of my most memorable projects
Space Systems Design
In my senior year of college I took a capstone design
course which focused on the question “Is it possible to for humans to
colonize space in a commercially-viable manner?” We considered O’Neill-style
orbiting stations, lunar colonies, and martian colonies.
Some of the topics that I personally investigated and
gave presentations on were the in-situ use of lunar regolith as a building
material and a mining resource; finding the ideal trajectories for
Earth-Moon transfers; how to conduct sample-return missions to collect
mineralogical specimens from the surface of Mars; and how to create human
habitats on or under the surface of Mars.
Incompressible Aerodynamics
As a class assignment in my incompressible aerodynamics class, I worked with a small group to theoretically improve the glide performance of a toy airplane by 10%. Our group modelled the plane in SolidWorks, ran aerodynamic simulations in vortex-lattice programs such as VLaero and XFLR5, and redesigned the electronics and materials to reduce weight. All work was hypothetical, we did not construct the improved airplane.
My main tasks involved using XFLR5 to compare the performance of various airfoil shapes, writing the MATLAB code to translate wing pressure distributions into wing force loadings, and designing a strong, lightweight wing box beam to support our maximum expected loads.