Aerospace Engineering MSE

Career Pathway

Some of my favorite childhood memories are watching airplanes land and lift off from Reagan Airport’s short runways and roar over our heads at Gravelly Point Park. Add to that a healthy love for science fiction and, in hindsight, my career as an aerospace engineer seems almost inevitable. I graduated from the University of Maryland- College Park with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering knowing that I wanted to work on aircraft that pushed the envelope of the possible. I chose Michigan for grad school and earned my M.S. and Ph.D. specializing in aeroelasticity of very flexible vehicles with Prof. Carlos Cesnik. While working on my graduate research, I crossed paths with Aurora Flight Sciences many times as they sponsored research within the department. I was drawn to the cutting edge work Aurora was doing with unmanned vehicles and I was hooked by the opportunity to work on a wide range of aircraft from high altitude pseudo-satellites to flying taxis, and witness every stage of production from white-paper concept to certifiable prototype. As an aerodynamicist at Aurora, I’ve had the opportunity to work on the Odysseus HALE aircraft, and I currently lead the aerodynamics and performance team for the Orion UAS.

Master’s Degree Differentiator

Design and analysis of aircraft systems that employ configurations and capabilities outside the boundaries of traditional fixed-wing design require a deeper understanding of the underlying science than is granted by a typical undergraduate degree. When solving problems, my graduate degrees enable me to go beyond existing solutions and innovate new tools and methods so we can make airplanes that fly higher, farther, and longer than ever before.

Additional Comments

I’ve always believed the key to a great engineer is a well-rounded person outside the lab/classroom/office. I was an officer for MUSES and the SMES-G (now GBSES), and chief editor of Blueprint, the North Campus Literary Magazine. I’m also passionate about community engagement and if I wasn’t in FXB, I could usually be found volunteering at the outreach and recruitment events hosted by the Aero Department, the College of Engineering Office of Grad Education, and Rackham. I’ve continued that outreach focus in my career at Aurora, including participating as a mentor in Girls in Aviation Day, AIAA Diversity Scholars Industry Mentorship Program, and the Michigan Aero Mentorship Program. Acronyms: MUSES: Movement for Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science SMES-G: Society of Minority Engineers and Scientists- Graduate Component GBSES: Graduate Society of Black Engineers and Scientists

In my first job, I spent 5 years at a small applied R&D company in Boston doing some aerospace and mechanical engineering projects, managing a few other engineers, and guiding technical capability development.  It was a lot of fun inventing new things, winning grant money to pursue your ideas, and you wear many hats in a small company which offers a lot of variety.  But our ideas never got much past the prototyping stage, and I wanted to commercialize something.  Also, Boston was too expensive for the lifestyle my wife and I wanted, so we moved back to Michigan when I found Stryker’s new product development group in the med-tech industry.  The breadth of their product portfolio meant many different engineering disciplines were needed.  Some of my aero principles applied and most of the mechanical principles.  I found more variety than I expected, so I didn’t have to worry about being pigeon-holed into one function.  I also found that I loved working on products that improve people’s lives.  After nearly 15 years at Stryker, I’m a lead engineer for a large portfolio of products.  In this role, I help set the vision and strategy for our portfolio, then implement that strategy by leading technology research and overseeing several new product development projects.

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

It’s an advanced credential that brings added credibility right from the start, compared to those with a Bachelor’s degree.  The aerospace job market was very poor when I entered school, so I double majored with mechanical to get two BSE’s.  That was not a good choice, waste of time and money, mostly because you can always get a job with an aerospace degree…just maybe not in that industry right away.  I should have spent that time and money on graduate school.  Also, going right to grad school after BSE has pros and cons.  Pro: I could focus on it and got done quickly.  Con: Without real-world experience, I didn’t have any context for what I was learning.  Going to grad school after a few years in the workforce would have helped me get more out of my master’s degree education.  However, working and going to school would have taken me longer to finish and reduced my free time during the semesters. 

Dr. Dan Patt is CEO of Vecna Robotics, a leading commercial robotics and industrial automation technology provider. Vecna Robotics has unique artificial intelligence technology for resilient orchestration of diverse autonomous systems, industrial equipment, and human capabilities. Patt also serves as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis (CSBA), a leading policy research institute located in Washington, DC.

During his studies at the University of Michigan, Patt developed highly integrated software toolsets for model-based vehicle design with emphasis on active control of noise and vibration. Aerospace Engineering Professor Peretz Friedmann was his faculty advisor. After receiving his PhD, Patt held senior technical positions at Boeing Phantom Works, Karem Aircraft, and Radiant Sciences, gaining engineering experience in robotics, air vehicle flight testing, dynamics analysis, adaptive control, learning systems, systems integration, human interface, and health monitoring. Before assuming the role of CEO at Vecna Robotics, Patt was Deputy Director of DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office. At DARPA, he led the effort to develop a strategy for renewed conventional military advantage focused on achieving decision superiority and risk distribution.

I did detailed autopilot and midcourse design for a variety of missile programs at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, AZ. I transferred to Integrated Defense Systems inside of Raytheon in Woburn, MA to do tracking for radars, then took a job as a lead systems engineer at MITRE for communication terminals

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

At Raytheon Missile Systems autopilot department when I got hired it was 50% masters and 50% Ph.D.  Have a graduate degree was basically a prerequisite for a job in that department.  Complex control systems are not linear and rarely time-invariant. Those assumptions go away at the graduate level.  The Masters in Systems engineering helped me move from detailed design to full systems thinking. Having both makes it a good combination in leading the development of complex systems.

Advice to Students

Take the time outside of class to join the clubs.  It is really worth it both in terms of resume and people. Go to office hours.  Try to work with a Ph.D. student doing research you think is interesting.  Your professors are probably more impressive then you realize. Get to know them and learn all you can.  While you will have little to no free time and enormous stress you will learn so much. Professors Dennis Bernstein (AERO) and Prof. Freudenberg (EECS) were great. I keep Prof. Freudenberg’s book/class notes at my desk even today.

Career Pathway

Mitchell L. R. Walker is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Associate Chair of Graduate Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he directs the High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory. His primary research interests include experimental and theoretical studies of advanced plasma propulsion concepts for spacecraft and fundamental plasma physics. Dr. Walker received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he specialized in experimental plasma physics and advanced space propulsion. His training includes rotations at Lockheed Martin and NASA Glenn Research Center. In 2005, he founded the electric propulsion program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Walker’s research activities include Hall effect thrusters, gridded ion engines, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, diagnostics for plasma interrogation and thruster characterization, vacuum facility effects, helicon plasma sources, plasma-material interactions, and electron emission from carbon nanotubes. He has authored more than 125 journal articles and conference papers in the fields of electric propulsion and plasma physics. Dr. Walker has served as an Associate Editor of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and on the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Physics and Astronomy and Space Sciences – Plasma Physics since 2015. As an AIAA Associate Fellow and Deputy Director for Space Rockets and Advanced Propulsion, he delivered expert witness testimony “In-Space Propulsion: Strategic Choices and Options” to the Space Subcommittee Hearing – House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. in 2017 to help guide national investments in electric propulsion technology. He was a participant in the 2014 US National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. In 2015, he was the co-organizer for a focus session at the Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Currently, Dr. Walker serves as a member of the Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. He is also a recipient of the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award, the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award, and a NASA Faculty Fellow Award.

Favorite student organizations

University of Michigan Marching Band

Propulsion Manager of the Dragon reusable spacecraft program at SpaceX. I’ve been a SpaceX engineer since 2008 when I was hired after graduation to work as a development engineer. Though the company is now over 3,000 employees strong, I was one of the first few hundred people to work at the company. 

My passion for rockets has been lifelong. I’ve been launching them since the age of 10 and when I was 16, I built a 52-pound scale model of a Boeing Bomarc supersonic rocket that climbed 3,500 feet.  I had two internships during college: one at Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Fla. in 2006 and the following year at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where I was a Mars Science Laboratory propulsion engineering intern.

Reflection on Time Spent at UM

During my time at the University of Michigan, I acted on my passion for rocketry by co-founding the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA), a student team that designs, builds, tests, and launches rockets in an annual competition. I was also a 1931E Honor Society scholar, a recipient of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation award, and an active athlete in UM Club Tennis.