Internship - The Aerospace Corporation

I joined The Aerospace Corporation as an intern in May 2023. While searching for roles similar to my work in my research lab, I came across the position of System of Systems Engineer almost serendipitously. Although I wasn’t familiar with the term “System of Systems” at the time, the job description seemed like a great fit for my background, so I decided to give it a try.

Throughout the summer internship, I had an amazing experience that exceeded my expectations. I had the opportunity to learn a lot about various areas, including system of systems concepts, enterprise engineering, software development, and SysML modeling. These new skills and insights have been incredibly valuable for my professional development.

Portfolio Decision Support Tool

The main project I worked on was software development for the Portfolio Decision Support Tool. This tool integrates and visualizes multi-faceted architectural data in support of the acquisition decision making process. Here are a few of my contributions:

• Independently implemented various graph analysis algorithms in C++/Qt and worked as part of a software engineering team to incorporate them into an existing space architecture modeling and visualization software tool.
• Implemented probabilistic graph analysis algorithms using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate future performance of satellite networks.
• Used an agile workflow including using git/bitbucket and JIRA for managing tasks.

A few of the graph algorithms implemented were Breadth-First Search, Depth-First Search, Dijkstra, and the Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm. These were all implemented using a custom graph class unique to PDST’s generic data structures. Due to material sensitivity, I am unable to present the GUI or any other work regarding PDST.

Cloud Service Providers

Another project I worked on with five other interns was modeling the five largest U.S. cloud providers in SysML using the Cameo Systems Modeler program. Throughout this project, I consistently stepped up into a leadership role. I led discussions with our government customer to establish rapport, clarify objectives, and define project scope, goals, and deliverables. I also led presentations of technical work and models to government customers in a clear and precise manner. Beyond these soft-skills, I also was the lead modeler, developing the architecture of our model, implementing a custom profile in Cameo for our model, and developing a region/domain view for our model. Again, due to material sensitivity, I am unable to present any diagrams or additional work regarding this project.

Concept Design Center Study

During the internship, Aerospace flew all of the interns to its headquarters in El Segundo, California. Here, we participated in a Concept Design Center study, which applies cutting-edge digital engineering tools and approaches to provide relevant information and guidance in customers’ decision-making processes. During this study, I produced requirements traceability and activity diagrams (ConOps) in SysML.