This summer I had the honor of working at the Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) under the advisement of Prof. David Barnhart and PhD student Howard Hall. I worked as a systems engineer, managing a small group of five interns, and as an optics engineer for Optical Reef: an absurdly large segmented telescope. I got to experience first-hand what it is like to not only be responsible for my work, but also to oversee everyone else’s progress as well.
I was particularly interested in this type of experience because I have taken two semesters of systems engineering courses as part of my astronautical engineering degree. Being able to apply what I learned about spacecraft systems and subsystems to a real life project was really validating.
Another incredible part of my job was the location. USC’s SERC is located in Marina Del Rey, right on the water, so being bored at work was simply never an option. I mean look at the sunset view and tell me you disagree…
Not only did I have a really cool view, but I also got work in an electronics and optics lab and fun fact: I shared the electronics lab with my colleagues and a lunar lander!
My colleagues were incredible as well, many of us were astronautical engineering students but there was a lot of diversity amongst us. We had a team of physicists, electrical engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, aerospace, and mechanical engineering students all working together. This internship helped me understand the value of having a broad range of backgrounds working to problem solve.
My personal work focused on autonomous systems, the fundamental question I was trying to answer was: how do I detect my own location as a robot, relative to other flying spacecraft, isolated in space? Using different sensors like LiDAR and ultrasonic sensors, I was able to test location awareness accuracy and plot my findings to a live feed that displayed my coordinates. This was the first step towards a much larger control system which will govern the motions of floating devices that carry optical mirrors for the Optical Reef telescope. Part of my role as a systems engineer was to make sure the entire control loop worked well together and my responsibility as an astronautical engineer was to ensure that I could get location accuracy within a certain, specified margin of error.
Working at SERC was definitely one of the highlights of my career, I am so glad I got this amazing opportunity to work amongst some of the best astronautics faculty and students throughout the years, and grateful I got to soak in so much ocean air this summer!
