Anshuman Das, B.S., Mechanical Engineering '18

I decided to join Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering because I wanted to apply my skills in mathematical analysis and very basic knowledge of physics to a broad range of phenomena involved with spacecraft. Since MAE had a much supported spacecraft engineering program, I knew it would be a great idea to work with professors in research and projects in this area. I'd love to pursue an M.Eng. degree, and hopefully a Ph.D. in spaceflight mechanics.

There's a lot of potential for discovery and implementation of techniques involving spacecraft attitude dynamics and that's something that I'd like to work with in the future. Currently, I work with two projects with spacecraft technology. The first, Artificial Gravity CubeSat, is an M.Eng. project with Professor Selva for research involving attitude control with tethered spacecraft. My work on the project is mainly focused on 6 DOF dynamics simulation of the spacecraft, vibrational analysis in the tether, and energy dissipation techniques through viscous damping. My other project, Spacecraft Simulator, is undergraduate research with Professor Peck for command, control, and attitude stabilization of spacecraft through a more electronics-based perspective and work with electrical engineering. I hope that with my work on both projects, I will gain a much better overall understanding of astronautics.

I spent the first few years at Cornell trying to understand what I really wanted to focus in with MAE. I have gone back and forth many times between my interests in thermo-fluidics and astronautics, with course decisions, along with my research choices. It would have been convenient to finalize an area of interest earlier on, but exploring different areas definitely has given me taste of the broader side of engineering.

As part of every engineer's life, unwinding after a long week of work and studying is definitely a necessity in day-to-day work life. Apart from my coursework and research at Cornell, I enjoy playing table tennis at the West Campus houses and playing piano at Lincoln!