Leading USC’s Liquid Propulsion Laboratory
Set up for a hot fire test
USC LPL Lead Engineer (Jan 2020-2021)
The Liquid Propulsion Laboratory is USC’s premier graduate astronautical engineering student-led research lab. For over seven years, LPL has provided students with hands-on experience with designing, manufacturing, and testing low thrust liquid rocket engines. LPL’s mission was to hold all activities to industry standards and thus provide real-world engineering experience that students could bring with them to start their careers.
Joining the lab as one of only two undergraduate students out of the 40+ members was at first, intimidating. However, by constantly asking questions and taking the initiative to work with more senior members, I quickly rose to the ranks within LPL and today am its Lead Engineer. Our current projects focus on research contracts with the Aerospace Corporation to investigate particle shedding and its effects on engine performance for additively manufactured engines. Our Balerion engine is the most powerful liquid-liquid, additively manufactured, student-built rocket engine in the world. Our facilities include our Water Flow Test Stand (WFTS), Hydra GOx-Kerosene hot fire test stand, and our CRYPTOS cryogenic development stand.
As a lead engineer, I currently oversee our ongoing projects and manage our 40+ members. I also represent our lab in all meetings with the dean of the school of engineering and work with the astronautics department to prepare budgets and pitch new projects to be funded.