Internships
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
June 2025 – August 2025 | Huntsville, AL
Applied two-color thermography for melt pool monitoring on NASA’s Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) WAAM system for Inconel 718 and aluminum alloys. Assisted with process monitoring on additional directed energy deposition systems using regolith simulants.
- In-Situ Thermal Monitoring
- Metal Additive Manufacturing
- Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing
The Aerospace Corporation
June 2022 – August 2022 | El Segundo, CA
Captured in-situ temperature data on powder-fed DED parts to study porosity and hardness. Conducted metallography and correlated PDAS, SDAS, and porosity with thermal signatures.
- DED Process Monitoring
- Metallography
- Hardness Correlation
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
January 2022 – May 2022 | Lexington, MA
Assisted in CubeSat deployment hardware testing under thermal extremes. Created and validated designs for launch survivability.
- CubeSat Design
- Thermal Testing
- SolidWorks CAD
Launcher (acquired by Vast)
May 2021 – August 2021 | Hawthorne, CA
Operated a VELO3D LPBF system and supported thermal channel design for the Orbiter engine. Created PLA gimbal mockups for payload deployment concepts.
- VELO3D LPBF Operations
- Orbiter Engine Design
- Thermal Channel Optimization
KCNSC Honeywell FM&T
June 2020 – August 2020 | Kansas City, MO
Designed fastening tools for LPBF manufacturing and evaluated surface roughness changes using profilometry. Contributed to additive manufacturing machinability documentation.
- LPBF Tool Design
- Deburr & Profilometry
- Process Documentation
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
January 2020 – May 2020 | Huntsville, AL
Characterized thermal behavior of ionic polyimides for in-space additive manufacturing. Peer-reviewed publication: O’Harra, K.E., Noll, D.M., Kammakakam, I., DeVriese, E.M., Solis, G., Jackson, E.M., Bara, J.E. (2020). “Designing Imidazolium Poly(amide-amide) and Poly(amide-imide) Ionenes.” Polymers, 12(6):1254.
- DSC Characterization
- TGA Characterization
- TMA Characterization
NASA Glenn Research Center
June 2019 – August 2019 | Cleveland, OH
Analyzed thermal performance of propulsion components and contributed to safety documentation for crewed spaceflight-related systems.
- Propulsion Systems
- Thermal Analysis
- Risk Evaluation
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
January 2019 – May 2019 | Huntsville, AL
Designed reaction control system components using Siemens NX, prototyped concepts with FDM, and performed high-pressure tests on prototype valves to verify durability and safety.
- Mechanical Design
- Siemens NX
- FDM Prototyping
- High-Pressure Testing
