When I first applied to college, I applied as an Undecided Major because I had no idea what I wanted to do. Then, the more I thought about it over the course of my senior year in high school, I realized that I should take the path to becoming an engineer: the only question was which one? Well, as it turns out, I happened to be interested in space and things that fly, so I decided I’d do Aerospace Engineering.
As an Aerospace Engineer, I’ve gotten to take some pretty cool classes and work on some awesome projects. During my sophomore year, I took AME 261: Basic Flight Mechanics where we learned about the basic aerodynamics behind the flight of airplanes. The class also featured a group project that we worked on for the second half of the semester. For the project, we split up into groups of 5 and each group had to design the most lightweight, most efficient solar powered airplane that could travel to China from LA in the fastest time. It was a lot of fun because unlike other projects that I’ve been assigned, this was a legitimate, real world application of something we were learning in class. Another class that I am taking right now is AME 436: Energy and Propulsion, where we talk about how different propulsion systems work, for cars, and for airplanes.
Outside of class, I got involved with the Collaborative High Altitude Flow Facility where I was able to do research on a thruster. It was cool because, like with the airplane design, I was applying knowledge from class to a real world application. And, as I have mentioned here and here, I became involved with the USC Rocket Lab.
I hope that you have as much fun with whatever degree you pursue as I have had with mine!
