Blog 1?

I’ve never written a blog before but I figured I might as well start now. This first one is being written at mu.so coffee on West Adams in LA - their pistachio cream latte is quite rich and not too sweet.

Today is a momentous day - it marks the transition from my old life as an aerospace engineer to my new journey as a Ph.D Student working at the intersection of machine learning, control, and robotics. In fact, my internship at The Aerospace Corporation just ended yesterday.

Many of my peers have gone on to the aerospace giants - SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed, Boeing, and more. Some have gone to startups, while others are pursuing their masters degree. However, when discussing my plan to transition away from traditional aerospace roles, the ubiquitious response is, “Why?”

I admit it’s a great question, and one that I couldn’t answer clearly for a while. I had my start in structures, taking the notorious Advanced Strength of Materials with Dr. K in my first ever semester at UT and working on the recovery team at Texas Rocket Engineering Laboratory. During this stint, I got my first job working at ATA Engineering, which is a traditionally FEA-focused aerospace consultant (although I’d end up getting my hands on some ML work here).

The longer I stayed in this typical aerospace role, the more I realized that it really isn’t that fun. When it came down to it, all I was really doing was staring at triangles and tweaking parameters (I know this is a generalization but it’s how I feel!). Then I took more aerospace classes, from spacecraft dynamics to propulsion (shoutout Maha) to aircraft design, and although the concepts were interesting, I couldn’t see myself doing that work at an industry level. Not that I was a bad student, though - I was the only one to earn Highest Honors in the entire ASE/COE department.

The only thing really bringing me fulfillment was research - specifically in the stuff I’m doing now. I enjoyed learning about how machines can act as humans, how they can make decisions that save lives, and how they can infer meaning that we sometimes can’t. Although I’m by no means an expert, the prospect of studying this brings immense excitement.

So here I am now, an aerospace engineering veteran now pursuing a Ph.D in ECE. I’m ready to explore a new world of learning. The only thing worrying me is getting an internship - I’m no software engineer but I can solve problems! If a recruiter is reading this, feel free to hire me!