Welcome to Kyle's Website

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Previously, I worked at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I worked in the Research and Development Science and Engineering (R&D S&E) devision on the hypersonic glide body. This includes guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL), software-in-the-loop (SWIL), testing, and lots of Simulink.

Before that, I worked at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS) in San Diego, California. I worked in the R&D group on the railgun project. This included projectile/missile, quadcopters, stereo vision cameras, image analysis, GNC, radar, and lots of Matlab. In addition, I worked on many other projects including a universal satellite platform, the Next Generation Interceptor, a concept submarine, and laser weapons.

I got my Master's Degree in 2018 and Bachelor's Degree in 2017, both in Aerospace Engineering. In college, I specialized in GNC, space based electric propulsion, and systems engineering.

Topics I studied while at UIUC:

• Electric propulsion (spacecraft)
• Control systems / GNC
• UAV / quadrotor dynamics
• Combustion
• Aerospace propulsion
• Orbital mechanics
• Systems engineering
• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Finite element analysis (FEA)
• Computer aided design (CAD)
• Solid mechanics
• Non-linear elasticity
• Composites

I was a research assistant in the electric propulsion (HIIPER) and fusion (CPMI) research laboratories. Immediately after starting at UIUC, I joined the HIIPER lab because of my fascination with space-based electric propulsion and plasma physics. During summer, when the HIIPER lab would close, I started working at the fusion lab as it also dealt with plasma physics. After that summer, I split my time between both labs until graduating.

As a graduate student, I was given the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for the electric propulsion and plasma physics class taught by Dr. Joshua Rovey. This class started by covering the basics of plasma physics and then ran through different types of electric thrusters. My understanding of electric propulsion was deepened through teaching the topic to others.

Topics I studied while at IIT:

• Fluid mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Statics / Dynamics
• Material science
• Electricity and magnetism
• FMEA
• Six sigma

List of extracurriculars:

• TechNews
• Student Government
• Baja SAE
• Residence Hall Association
• Ethics Bowl
• Robotics Club
• Camras Board
• College Radio

TechNews is IIT's student-run newspaper. I started writing for TechNews during my first semester. Shortly thereafter, I took on the additional roll of business manager in charge of ads and payroll. I wrote about anything but focused mostly on food reviews and cultural events in Chicago. Occasionally I wrote opinion pieces about the college and student life. In addition, I got the unique opportunity to cover the Chicago Auto Show with a press badge.

IMSA is a unique high school. It is a public, boarding, college prep high school that only runs for the sophomore, junior, and senior years. Unlike most public High Schools, there is an application process comparable to college. In addition, all professors have PhDs and industry experience. Around 250 students per year are admitted. Due to the academic rigor and living away from home, there is a high drop out rate. My graduating class of 2013 contained about 180 students.

Many IMSA professors previously worked at Fermilab, therefore and I attended multiple trips to the facilities including visiting the Tevatron before it was turned off. These same professors taught an engineering class based on some classic engineering challenges. I built a cardboard boat, a toothpick bridge, and miniature endurance airplanes. It was in this environment which I developed my fascination for engineering and physics.

The student inquiry and research (SIR) program at IMSA allows students to pursue research opportunities. For my SIR project I built and studied energy generating stationary bikes. I kept a research log, wrote a final paper, presented my findings, and participated in a poster session. This was my formal introduction to the research process.

While at IMSA, I was pushed intellectually further than I have been since. Although it was challenging, I look back at it with fulfillment. I am constantly seeking out challenges that will push me further than IMSA.

This was my first college research lab that I worked in. The goal was to develop a novel method of electric propulsion for spacecraft. The general design was a modified fusor with an asymmetry in the IEC grid that would produce a stream of plasma. The IEC grid was fed with ions from a Helicon plasma source.

In this lab I learned how to operate the test equipment which included vacuum equipment, power supplies, oscilloscopes, function generators, and compressed gas cylinders. For data collection and analytics, I used LabView, excel, and Matlab. I used Comsol to run multiphysics simulations.

One of my major projects was the creation of a thrust sensor that would operate within the vacuum chamber. My initial design was an impact plate connected to a lever arm and stress concentrator. Strain gauges were mounted on the stress concentrator in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. Calibration determined the relation between strain gauge readings and impact force. I modified this design to replace the strain gauges with laser interferometry displacement system in order to get more precise measurements.

Another of my major projects was the refurbishment of the Helicon coil used to create plasma. The old coil was misaligned and could only be run in short bursts before overheating. I recreated the coil using larger copper wire to prevent overheating and a better mounting system to ensure the structure would not shift over time. The new coil better integrated with the matching network and RF power supply to have less than 1% reflected power under full operation.

My work in the fusion lab started on the DEVeX machine, a plasma cannon used to simulate conditions within a fusion reactor. I later began working on all other machines in the lab including a tokamak and a liquid and vapor deposition machine.

One of my projects was to implement an electrical cutoff system to prevent the capacitors from charging and dump their energy when the door was open or if any piece of equipment was not powered on correctly. I soldered the circuitry and installed it in custom electrical enclosures.

Another project of mine was working with Dr. Mike Jaworski from PPPL to qualify lithium as a wall material to be used inside fusion reactors. I used a liquid and vapor deposition machine to create lithium filled metallic sponges with molybdenum coating. These were analyzed in the DEVeX machine using a laser imaging system to capture images of when the plasma ball impacted the samples.

While working in the lab, I learned many plasma physics concepts and lab safety techniques. I also learned test procedure writing as I updated machines with new equipment. After I added the new equipment to a machine, I would try out the additions and learn about their quirks. Afterward, I appended the new operating instructions to the test procedures.

My energy generating bike research project looked into the engineering challenges of building an energy generating stationary bike as well as the psychological impact of such a device. It was my first formal research experience including document writing, poster sessions, and public presentations. In addition, statistical testing was used to analyze the numerical data in order to verify correlations.

The first step was to build the bike. The purchasing department was slow to place an order for supplies and they were misplace after arrival. This wasted much of my budget and time therefore I had to deploy some creative engineering in order to build the bike. This part of the project was as much engineering as it was lesson in navigating a bureaucracy.

The second step was the analyze the impact of the bike on the students and faculty. The bike was a combination of both fitness and environmentalism therefore I tested to see if these factors would be amplified when combined. To do this, I distributed surveys across campus and ran the results through a series of statistical tests that either proved or rejected my null-hypotheses.

Finally, I wrote a publishable research paper detailing my process and results. In addition, I created a poster and a powerpoint that I presented publicly. This gave me writing and public speaking experience.

View Findings:

• Final Paper
• Poster
• Presentation

This project spanned 2 semesters in an aerospace focused systems engineering class. The goal, in line with the 2017 AIAA Space Design Competition, was to create a proposal to send humans to Mars with a budget of $5 billion.

I was the team lead and structural engineer. As team lead, it was my duty to schedule team meetings, communicate between my teammates and the professor, act as a unifying voice when writing reports, and resolve team conflicts. As structural engineer, I was in charge of living quarters, radiation and debris shielding, and return capsule.

The core focus of this project was on systems engineering, especially on determining requirements based on stakeholder goals and refining the design using risk analysis. With guidance from Dr. Zachary Putnam and the NASA systems engineering handbook, I lead my team through multiple program reviews and presentations. In the end, we created a strong proposal which earned third place in the national design competition and an A in the class. We even got the chance to present our proposal to an astronaut in person.

Download Mission Proposal

I started working with UAVs in my control system class. I learned coordinate frame transforms, state space control methods, and traditional PID control. I applied this knowledge to fly quadrotors in a MATLAB simulation environment. Later, I took a distributed system control class where I learned control works over multiple agents with limited communication, something useful for quadrotor arrays and autonomous driving. In addition, one of my aerospace lab classes included wind tunnel testing of common UAV NACA airfoils for flight characteristics.

Along with a small team, I began working to create the Coffee Coptor, a quadrotor that delivers coffee. A quadrotor was fitted with a cargo box to hold the coffee and a camera to authenticate delivery using QR codes. I wrote a GNC system that plotted an optimal trajectory, accounted for changing mass, avoided obstacles, and provided extra stability during delivery. Before flying a physical quadrotor, the code was tested in a quadrotor simulation so the bugs could be worked out. Finally, the physical quadrotor was programmed and the first flight was successful.

At General Atomics, I helped to fly quadrotors and fixed-wing UAVs during test events. These quadrotors, fitted with RTK GPS, were flown to test and calibrate radar equipment. I learned how to use the ArduPilot software and Emlid Reach GPS modules. After test events, I compared the data from the radar against the GPS data from the quadrotors

I started writing for TechNews during my first semester at IIT. I started writing about interesting restaurants and cultural events I visited within Chicago. Exploring the city was made easy using the unlimited ‘L’ pass which was given to all IIT students. One year, I got a press badge to attend the Chicago Auto Show. As press, I attended the show one day early before the crowds showed up. I was able to take some great car photos for the paper and interview staff from the car brands. Overall, I enjoyed exploring Chicago and writing about my discoveries in the newspaper.

Occasionally I would write about student life and my opinions about the IIT administration. Because of this, I was able to interview multiple administrators including the president of the college. I enjoyed writing about the topics which the student body felt passionate about. This also opened up a dialog which encouraged other to share their opinions by writing for the newspaper.

Other than writing, I was also the business manager for TechNews. It was my job to manage ad contracts, ad placement, and payroll. At the end of the year, the newspaper had some budget leftover which I used to throw a celebration for the staff and frequent writers.

I was a part of the SAE team at IIT. I designed the Baja tube frame using my familiarity with CAD as well as experience working on my go kart. In this task, I needed to account for the competition design restrictions as well as the geometries needed to fit all the components.

I left IIT before the frame was built, but I came back years later to find that my design made it into the completed vehicle.

At IMSA, my high school, all of the Juniors participated in an ethics class. This class is taught by Dr. Lee Eysturlid with the help of a handful moderators, Seniors who took the class the previous year. I like the class so much that I volunteered as a moderator. To prepare as a moderator, I read multiple books about the different ethical systems and the history of ethics. In addition, the moderators had meetings to discuss what we learned before teaching it to the Juniors.

As a moderator, I did not teach the students, but facilitated their discussion. I was there to answer questions and provide guidance while the students did their own learning and. Especially on a topic like ethics where there is no single answer, the best I could do was provide historical context and share my opinions.

At IIT, I joined the ethics bowl, a club similar to debate club with a focus on ethics. We would compete against other local colleges on ethics topics. A panel of judges gave each team a stance relating to ethics and were asked to argue for its validity, whether the team members personally believed it or not. The teams would take turns arguing their side of the issue. To whoever made the best ethical reasoning, not the best debating or speaking, the judges would crown the winner.

I was heavily involved in Boy Scouts. I sold popcorn, sold chocolate, went camping, attended Jamboree, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. To this day, I still enjoy any outdoor activity especially camping and hiking.

For my Eagle Scout project, I decided to create gift baskets for troops deploying overseas. With the help of my troop, I distributed flyers to the local neighborhoods asking for donations. A few weeks later, I collected the donations, filling up 3 vans in total. I took these donations to a sendoff ceremony at a National Guard Armory where I gave them to the troops and their families on the day they left.

Some things I’ve made:

• Line following robot car
• Auto-closing blinds
• Media server
• Bike wheel LED display
• Google home
• Wireless speaker
• Bluetooth car music adapter

I built a passive walker for my aerospace dynamics class. Based on the computer simulations of the walker, I expected it would walk (at least for a bit) when placed on a slope. However, the actual thing was too heavy and had too much friction to move. Though still a fun thing to build.

I was a part of the Engineers Without Borders organization at IIT. Our goal was to build a bridge for the people of San Claudio, Nicaragua. I looked through site surveys to map where and what resources existed in the surrounding area. The bridge was going to be built using local materials with the assistance of the people living there.

I also attended a national EWB conference where I learned about the projects which other engineers were pursuing.

Tesla coils are cool devices. Ever since seeing a tesla coil at the science museum as a kid, I know that I wanted to build my own. I powered the primary coil using a high voltage transformer from an old CRT TV. I hand-wound the secondary coil using magnetic wire and a 2 foot long fiberglass tube.

My goal is to convert this into a musical tesla coil.

Inspired by MythBusters, a friend and I built an air cannon using 3x 2 liter bottles and some PVC piping. The bottles could easily hold 100 psi, which were pressurized using a bike pump.

Anything could be fired out of the air cannon, but my favorite were ice bullets. I once took the air cannon to an archery range and fired arrows out of it. Even though the arrows were blunt target practice arrows, the arrows buried themselves in the targets up to the fletching.

I started launching model rockets using the Estes kit rockets. Over time, I ran out of larger kits to launch and started building my own. I 3D printed my own nose cones which I designed to exactly fit my body tubes. My altimeter claimed I once got to 2000 feet.

This was my first formal introduction to engineering. IMSA offered an intro to engineering class that quickly covered the fundamentals before working through a list of engineering challenges including cardboard boat and toothpick bridge.

The final project was a freeform 'build something useful' task. I designed a smoke detector for the deaf and blind which sprayed a foul smelling mist and flashed brighter lights. The design could be easily implemented in the home by piggy backing off of conventional smoke detectors. The mist was also refillable, just in case you wanted to use Febreze instead.

My buggy-style go kart was a lot of fun. In the summers I tore up the fields and ran time trials on the streets. But it really came alive in the Illinois winters. After everything iced over, it turned into a drifting machine.

When I wasn’t riding it, I would be working on it. I took apart the entire engine and fixed up the front steering. I added quick remove plexiglas body panels which helped to keep the bugs out of my face and retain some warmth in the winter.

MATLAB

• Image processing and analysis
• Stereo vision
• Thermal management analysis
• Control systems
• Simulink

CAD

• SolidWorks
• NX
• Solid Edge
• Inventor

Linux

• Arch and Ubuntu
• Media and file servers
• Virtualization

Programming

• Python
• Java
• C++
• JavaScript
• HTML/CSS
• Fortran

Photo and Video Editing

• Premiere Pro
• Photoshop
• Gimp

Languages

• German
• Chinese
• Spanish

Leadership

• National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT)
• Order of the Arrow
• Boy Scouts
• Student Government

Fermilab

I visited Fermilab multiple time for school, but I also visited on my free time. I enjoyed attending the monthly lecture series talks about current research. In attrition, I helped with their land management efforts including garbage cleanups, control burns, and reseeding.

Cross Country

I started running cross country in middle school and continued it though high school. I was never a fast runner, but I enjoyed running nonetheless. I still try to get in 3 miles every day.

Ultimate Frisbee

At IMSA, the Ultimate Frisbee team had a rough few years. There were no longer any active members. I appointed myself captain and revived the team. I re-wrote the club charter, recruited new members, and ensured that the team would run smoothly for years to come.

(I’ve also done a bit of Frisbee golf)

Biking

I made it through high school and college without a car. A bike was my main form of transportation, only walking or riding a bus in extremely bad weather. One summer, I spent a week biking across northern Illinois on the Grand Illinois Trail. I brought a test with me and camped at local campgrounds. Luckily for me, Illinois is a very flat state which made the trip much easier. California is different story.

even more emails (check less frequently)

• Work E-Mail (Sandia)
• Work E-Mail (GA)
• School E-Mail (IIT)
• School E-Mail (IMSA)
• Professional E-Mail