Hometown: Gig Harbor, Washington

Technical Area: Space Flight

What made you decide to pursue an aerospace engineering degree?

There's nothing like space. It truly is the 21st century's New Frontier. What drew me most to aerospace is that it is the least egocentric of all the engineering majors, because studying space is a continual reminder of the importance of what exists beyond earth. Learning about space is hardly about learning what is known. Instead, it's about exploring and discovering what will disprove everything we know. Being on the brink of human knowledge made the choice easy for me.

How do you plan to use your ASE degree in the future?

The great thing about aerospace is that there are so many options after graduation. We are exposed to thousands of systems and phenomena that could potentially form a career. It's just a matter of deciding. After an amazing internship at Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this summer I hope to continue the research I started there with photodiodes. Solar power has implications that range far beyond spacecraft, and I don't want to limit myself to space. I know that my degree from UT will give me all the tools I need to pursue a graduate degree and make solar power a more viable alternative to carbon fuels (and maybe help out a few satellites too).