Name: Ishaan Bakhle

 

Birthplace: Cleveland, OH

 

AAE Major/Minor Concentration: Dynamics and Control / Design

 

Student Classification: Senior

 

Name and location of company/organization where you are an intern: NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA

 

What are your job duties? I currently work on designing new aircraft concepts, which involves defining mission requirements and concepts of operation as well as performing sizing and trade studies. I am looking at the analysis tools available and building a framework to rapidly analyze different concepts. I'm also adapting a linked aircraft simulation for visualization purposes and to help define some of the requirements on the system. 

 

Why did you want to do this internship? This internship is giving me the chance to explore work that I have always liked (dynamics/controls simulations) while showing the context for how that work fits into preliminary design. I am also getting a chance to apply concepts I learned in class to real applications and see the overall interaction between the different disciplines in aerospace.

 

What do you hope to gain from the experience? I hope to learn more about the aircraft design process, not only from a technical perspective but from a business perspective as well (what stakeholders are looking for, how to put together a narrative, the best methods for pitching ideas).

 

Have you done other co-ops/internships as an AAE student? Last summer I worked at Boeing Commercial Airplanes as a systems engineering intern looking at how to more affordably design machined parts. The previous summer I worked at NASA Glenn Research Center as a test engineering intern updating test cell control systems.

 

What do you ultimate career goals? Ultimately I would like to do the kind of work that I am doing right now, designing unique and novel aircraft concepts to fill gaps in existing capabilities.