Focused and Driven

My journey began with an interest in music. At the start of my college career audio engineering for music production was my degree of choice. However, my counselor showed me there were more learning opportunities in mechanical engineering, so I went on to pursue that degree at UC Santa Barbara. During my senior year capstone project my team and I had been working diligently to ideate, design and build a mechanical clutch that would allow for toggling the engagement of regenerative braking in electric bicycle motors… only to discover that it was fatally flawed as we approached the last two weeks of the year. Not to be deterred, we pushed to redesign, machine, construct and test a new design that illustrated our proof of concept. Our ability to learn from failure and determination to perform under pressure earned us the 2021 UCSB Capstone Excellence in Technical Achievement award. This recognition inspired me to keep pursuing challenging projects.

At my last internship I helped design a magnetic rotor used in a pump to cool onboard electronics on the 2024 Nasa Europa Clipper satellite. While merely a small component, it still will help in the exploration and possible discovery of alien life on Jupiter’s iconic moon. I carry these experiences and everything I learned as a reminder that with enough focus and drive I could accomplish things that feel impossible. As my journey continues here at Salter, I am excited to put this into practice again and again.

An Idenity in Music

Although my path has steered toward engineering, I still embrace my lifelong love of music. Playing music as my main creative outlet for over half my life has woven this passion into my identity. Playing trumpet throughout my schooling and the summers of my childhood spent camping at Big Sur, attending musical events in the shades of the redwoods were big influences. In college I played in a punk band, and nowadays I can be found DJing with my friends as we hang out in my free time.