My time in the Marine Corps had prepared me to take full advantage of my time at the University of Colorado. I had been taught that you get out what you put in, and I knew this to be particularly true at university. I was very fortunate to be attending a university that had such diversity; in experience, challenges, and people.

During my three years I worked as a research assistant, played saxophone in the jazz band, trained with the triathlon team, become lead engineer of a satellite project, and ultimately learned how to manage my time (without a supervising Sergeant). The Marine Corps taught discipline, initiative and motivation; University gave me an opportunity to apply it.

Amazon's Project Kuiper is a communications satellite constellation designed to provide internet access in situations that are historically difficult, if not impossible, to do so. Such situations include underserved communities around the globe, maritime applications, military and more. There are three primary elements to the Project Kuiper Network; the Ground Gateway which interfaces with the internet, the Customer Terminal which interfaces with customer devices, and the Kuiper Satellites which acts as a wireless bridge between the gateway and terminal.

I had contributed to all three of these elements during my time with Amazon, with a primary focus on the Customer Terminal and Satellite Phased Array Antenna link. I designed/implemented the application software as well as drivers necessary to interface with the modems and beam formers on the satellite and terminal. This software included bootstrapping devices, configuration, telemetry, and commanding. I implemented a developer commanding suite for general used to enable integration testing of application software, both in simulation and on target.

Project Kuiper has a government interfacing organization that focusses on providing connectivity for government use cases. I worked with this organization as well to adapt the consumer customer terminal for use with military grade antenna, with the intention of integrating on mobile platforms such as ships and aircraft. I had led the software team in the development, test, and deployment of mission critical deliverables, achieving the end to end streaming of customer data to/from a production Kuiper satellite.

The Payload Integration and Control Unit (PICU) is a satellite subsystem designed to act as a payload hub, sitting between the satellite bus and multiple satellite payloads. The mission of the PICU is to enable the excution of several missions across several different payloads, all onboard one satellite. It does so by managing bus resource allocation, scheduling payload operations, handling command and data, all while providing customers access to their payloads in real-time. The PICU is implemented as a cluster of distributed nodes, allowing for redundancy as well as load balancing for more demanding computation.

As a senior developer on the PICU software team, I designed/implemented many of the critical functionalities of the PICU, such as the hearbeat/state of health broadcasting system, the CCSDS Space Packet communications stack, the time synchronization mechanisms (utilizing pulse per second hardware), and more. I also wrote and maintained a scripting suite in python to enable the scalable configuration and generation of missions in arbitrary setups (the cluster of distributed nodes changes between missions).

I also designed and developed an open source message-oriented middleware to replace the proprietary (and difficult to use) framework that had originally been used for the PICU. This middleware was built off of ZMQ, and enabled users to create arbitrary and scalable mesh networks of peers. Peers can then communicate with each other using three messaging patterns: Pub/Sub, Request/Reply, and Push/Pull. The project is called the Distributed Peer Network.

Europa Clipper will gather important data about one of Jupiter's icy moons, Europa, investigating it's potential to harbor conditions suitable for human life. The mission will launch a satellite into Jupiter's orbit, allowing the spacecraft to flyby and collect data from Europa.

My role on the project as an embedded flight software engineer has been to develop the software running on the main flight compute elements (a redundant set of flight computers). Working in a team of nearly 30 software engineers, we were tasked with not only developing software for the Europa Clipper mission, but developing a software product that could be easily repurposed for future missions. We used a space-time partitioned operating system (Greenhills Integrity), introducing modularity and safety, but adding complexity due to the introduction of partitions and virtual address spaces.

The Lunar Flashlight mission will use a 6U cubesat and cutting edge green propulsion to be the first cubesat to reach the moon, as well as be the first mission to use lasers to search for water ice.

My role on the team as an embedded flight software engineer was to develop driver level software to enable interfacing with hardware. I worked on a team of about 8 other software engineers tasked with designing a modular software framework called F-Prime. This framework was designed as a product to enable quick development of small satellite missions, but also as a tool to be used by the public. The framework is open source and currently on GitHub.

I was also fortunate enough to get to help with the hardware design of the flight computer. As part of the hardware team, I and three other engineers worked to design and test the Sphinx board, again designed to be reused by future projects.

The PolarCube mission is utilizing a 3U cubesat in order to collect atmospheric temperature profile measurements. The payload, an earth-sensing passive microwave instrument, will be the first passive microwave sensor flown on a small satellite.

My role on the team evolved overtime, starting as just a summer intern working on the flight software, to eventually being the lead avionics engineer, responsible for all hardware and software on the satellite avionics bus.

It was an amazing and necessary experience for me, as it resulted in me knowing exactly what I wanted to do with me career. It was in this project that I developed a passion for the intersection between hardware and software. I experienced what it's like working with a small, tight knit team in which every member is equally passionate about accomplishing the mission. From the late night meals to the occasional overnights in the lab, I learned more about engineering there than anywhere else; technically, personally, and professionally.

The CHIMERA (Child drone deployment Mechanism and Retrieval Apparatus) mission was funded by JPL, with the intent to design a drone deployment system capable of surveiling wild fires. The mission inherited a drone from a previous team.

I was tasked with providing autonomous operation capability for the drone, all the way from takeoff to landing. I was also tasked with implementing autonomous charging capability for the drone, in order to extend the life of each deployment.

I spent a year working with Dr. Jeffrey Parker and his research team in order to demonstrate the efficacy of HDTV signals as a source of navigation for spacecraft. Currently GPS can be used for spacecraft that remain below the GPS orbit (Medium Earth Orbit), or the Deep Space Network (DSN) can be used for traveling beyond, but there are not many alternative technologies available.

HDTV signals are signals that are broadcast by terrestrial towers, intended to transfer TV data to customers. But, not all of the energy that these towers broadcast stay on near the surface. Due to inherit imperfections in the radiation pattern of these towers, some of the signal radiates towards space. Using some of the synchronization data within these broadcasts, as well as some other a priori information, you can determine position in space with an accuracy of a few 100 meters.

I was responsible for determining if the signals from the side lobes of the HDTV towers was strong enough to be used for spacecraft navigation. I did so by preparing a payload for a high altitude balloon flight. By collecting data at various angles of inclination relative to the towers, I was able to determine the radiation pattern of the towers. Once the pattern was known, it was just a matter of applying formulas to determine the signal strength at distance.

I served one enlistment in the United States Marine Corps. During that time, I learned not only the typical military skills (firearms, hand-to-hand combat, leadership, etc), I learned many of the skills that are essential to personal success, like how to take initiative, how to be prepared, and how to maintain integrity. And it's for those skills that I consider the Marine Corps to be an essential experience for my personal development.

I first shipped out to boot camp in San Diego, where I enjoyed a 3-month, expenses paid summer vacation. Myself and the other recruits would go out for jogs in the morning with our camp counselors/Drill Instructors. Afterword, the days were filled with fun activities ranging from casualty evacuation drills to urban combat training, and even some one on one training with the Drill Instructors.

After training, I was stationed in New Orleans, LA where I began working under my Military Occupation Specialty, a bandsmen. A saxophone player to be precise. I spent the following three years encountering some of my most challenging moments, and developing some of the closest bonds that I am likely to ever. Semper Fi.