Hypersonic Reentry Coursework

I took Reentry Aerodynamics with Dr. Nandeesh Hiremath (my research advisor) in Winter 2024. I loved the course, mostly since it literally bridged the gap between what I had been learning in my orbital mechanics courses and the gas dynamics, heat transfer, and spacecraft/rocket propulsion courses (nobody talks about the upper atmosphere in aeronautical classes; and we don’t talk about sub-100 km flight dynamics in orbits). The summary paper of my work and findings over the quarter is available for download below.

AERO 407 – Reentry Aerodynamics. Near planet environments. Transition from orbital to aero-dynamic motion. Aerodynamic heating and effects on design.

Undergraduate Research

Since 2021, I have been working with Dr. Nandeesh Hiremath in the Cal Poly Aerospace Department on a novel research topic that explores the concept of a high-altitude autonomous flight system that can capture infrared images of hypersonic reentry objects. This work may allow future researchers to develop optical imaging assets that can help characterize various aspects of hypersonic flow dynamics that are not possible to recreate in ground-based testing systems.

Along with smaller local presentations, I’ve officially presented this research at the American Meteorological Society (2022), AIAA Region VI Student Paper Conference (2022), Cal Poly Summer Undergraduate Research Program (2022), SoCal Gas STEM Competition (2022), STEM-NET in Washington, DC (2023), AAAS Annual Meeting (2023), and the IEEE Aerospace Conference (2024).

Published Works

See more details on the published works here.