What is your next adventure?

I'll be moving to Huntsville, Alabama to work with the U.S. Army DEVCOM rotorcraft computational aeromechanics. As a Ph.D. student, I’ve been funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) SMART Program. SMART is a program for STEM students who want to transition to the workforce to help with the research goals for the Army.

What about your next adventure are you most looking forward to?

Getting to work with some of the smartest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) minds in the country and in the world. A lot of the Army folks are doing some of the most complex projects, so getting to work with them and learn from them is certainly something I'm looking forward to.

Did you have any previous co-op, internship, or research experience in this area?

I’ve actually had quite a few experiences. I received the SMART Scholarship because of past internships. At the end of my first year as a graduate student, I interned at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where I worked on modeling flight controllers. We tested whether a drone could be controlled within a simulation and free-fly across a designated area, while also evaluating new software tools.

The following summer, I interned at NASA Ames, where I worked on modeling a tube-launched aircraft (a short, cylindrical launch tube attached to the model that transmits propelling forces during launch). Our goal was to computationally model the launch sequence. 

At Georgia Tech, I’m part of the Nonlinear Computational Aeroelasticity Lab led by Professor Marilyn Smith. Most of my work has been on the simulation side, but I’ve also collaborated closely with experimental students in the Computational and Experimental Rotorcraft Engineering and Aerodynamics Laboratory (CEREAL), led by Professor Juergen Rauleder. For the tiltrotor project, I focused on the computational half while working with an experimental partner, we compared our simulations to wind tunnel results to see how well the models captured the same flow physics observed in the experiments and identified what adjustments were needed to better match real-world behavior.

How did your educational experience at Georgia Tech help you to achieve your goals?

One of the really cool things that helped me achieve my goals at Georgia Tech was the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE). It’s one of only three vertical lift research centers of excellence in the country, so there’s a strong emphasis on rotorcraft research and coursework. I came in basically knowing nothing about rotorcraft. I really liked planes and aircraft design, but then I met Prof. Smith, and she encouraged me to take a few classes just to see if I liked rotorcraft. I ended up taking several of her classes, along with classes from Prof. Rauleder and other professors involved in the VLRCOE, and I completely fell in love with the field.

I began to understand just how complex rotorcraft is?, and being able to take classes that covered both the breadth and depth of the field, while also working and interacting with students and professors who are actively involved in the rotorcraft space, was something I’d never experienced before coming to Georgia Tech. That exposure really sparked my interest in this area.

Outside the classroom, I served as a communications chair for the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) a few years ago, where I helped promote events such as talks by engineers working on NASA’s Dragonfly mission. I was also part of the VFS graduate student design team during my second year. That year, we designed a tiltrotor aircraft capable of flying about 450 knots with a range of roughly 500 miles. I worked on the project with students from my lab as well as Prof. Rauleder’s lab, and our team placed second in the competition.

What advice would you give to an underclassman who would like to follow the same path?

Be open to new experiences. I came to Georgia Tech with a one-track mind. I was focused on fixed-wing aircraft. But after taking a few classes, I discovered something I found much more interesting simply by being open to exploring new areas. That’s how I got into rotorcraft, through coursework and by getting involved in professional organizations like VFS. VFS hosts a wide range of technical seminars where you can learn about what’s happening in the research community, both at Georgia Tech and beyond, including presentations from researchers at the Army and NASA. Being open to those opportunities was huge in introducing me to this field.

From a research perspective, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to treat everything as a learning opportunity. You’re going to make mistakes, that’s just part of research. You’re constantly learning from things that don’t work just as much as from things that do. So instead of getting discouraged when something fails or doesn’t work on the first try, focus on understanding why it didn’t work and use that knowledge to keep moving forward.

Those two things, being open to new experiences and embracing the learning process are what really helped me get through this journey and stay focused on my long-term goals.