A day in the life of an aerospace engineer

Life as an aerospace engineer can vary greatly depending on your technical focus, role, and company. Recently, four AE alumni, in various positions and stages of their careers shared how they chose their respective disciplines--structures, controls, propulsion, and aerodynamics--and what their day-to-day roles entail. They also talked about how their Illinois education prepared them, and what they’ve had to learn independently or on-the-job to be successful.

 

 

Featured alumni included:

Derrick Ford, B.S. '93, M.S. '95, is a senior staff aerospace structural analysis engineer with 23 years of analysis and lead engineer experience in the development, factory, and in-service support of primary and secondary metallic and composites structures for commercial and military aircraft working alongside engineering professionals at QARBON Aerospace, Inc.

 

Ford is an accomplished structural analysis engineer that has used his skills to contribute to the successful development and sustainment of Wing, Empennage, Nacelle, and Fuselage Structural Details and Installations for Commercial Aircraft, Vertical Lift Helicopter, and Aircraft Military Programs. These programs include the Embraer ERJ, Global Hawk Wing, Gulfstream GIV/GV/GVSP Wing, CF6 Nacelles, Bell Boeing V-22 Empennage, Cessna Columbus Wing, Lockheed Martin F-35 Fuselage, the Boeing F/A-18 LEF SSAATD, the Boeing C17 Empennage, and the Boeing 747-913K Tanker.

 

He  enjoys spending time with his wife and supporting his two girls who take up the bulk of his free time with cheer, choir, and dance competitions. He also enjoys playing basketball, working out, jogging, and being a garage mechanic and household repair dad in his remaining free time.

 

Nihar Gandhi, B.S. '12, is currently a guidance, navigation, and controls engineer at Archer Aviation where he is developing the flight control systems for both autonomous and piloted electric VTOL aircraft. Before joining Archer, he developed and flight-tested the control system for the novel Vahana tilt-wing eVTOL at A³. Prior to that, his Flight Controls experience ranged from building small autonomous drones at Airware, all the way up to some of the largest commercial aircraft in the world at Boeing.

 

Florin Ghinet, B.S. '18, is a test engineer at Blue Origin.  During his time at UIUC, Florin co-founded Student Space Systems working on hybrid and liquid propulsion technology demonstrators and launched fully student designed, and built rockets to altitudes exceeding 37,000 ft. Florin also completed a c-op with SpaceX McGregor working on integrated Falcon 9 Stage Testing. In 2019, Florin began working for Blue Origin at the West Texas Launch Site (now known as Launch Site One), as a test engineer. Florin has been with Blue Origin for three years, working test operations of the BE-3PM and BE-3U hydrolox engines and watching New Shepard flights.

 

In his free time, Ghinet can found hiking the Sonora Desert in Arizona, reading sci-fi books, 3D printing, and taking his telescope out to look at the stars.

 

Scott Neuhoff, B.S. '16, is an aerospace engineer in the Computational Aerosciences Branch at NASA Ames Research Center where he supports various NASA projects such as launch environment predictions, supersonics, and acoustics. In addition to his BS from the University of Illinois, he obtained an M.S. from Stanford University in 2019.

 

Samantha McCue, BS '12, moderated the discussion.