Just over one week after attending the AIAA SciTech Forum, I am still in awe of the incredible experience I have been able to have with Higher Orbits. Even though I only had time to attend four sessions at the conference, all four of those sessions were rich in information and current developments in the aerospace industry. I got to talk about my involvement with Higher Orbits in front of an audience of professionals, and I got to meet fellow Higher Orbits students.
My first day at the conference was Tuesday the thirteenth. I attended a plenary session which pointed out some interesting connections between F1 racing and the aerospace industry. That same day, I was able to attend a session on metamaterials, which I learned are manmade materials designed for a very specific purpose (i.e. natural interlocking cells based on biological structures); Atmospheric and Space Environments (which I unknowingly attended with another Higher Orbits student, Keira); and Learning, Reasoning, and Data-Driven Systems. A lot of it was beyond me, but I still greatly enjoyed those three sessions.
On Wednesday, I went to a session in the morning on Space Power Systems, but I was anxiously awaiting the time in the afternoon when I would be speaking on the Higher Orbits student panel. I went over what I had written in my slides so many times before ascending the steps to The Hub’s stage. While I was nervous during my entire presentation, everything I said came so naturally to me because I was speaking about what I am passionate about. I love my involvement with Higher Orbits, and I love aerospace.
During SciTech, I learned so much more about aerospace, expanding my horizons. I got to meet five other Higher Orbits students who are all interested in much the same things as myself, and I was able to form connections with some of them. While I felt very unknowledgeable during the technical presentations (which makes sense when presenters are using equations with a very extreme ratio of letters to numbers, differential equations, Young’s Modulus, and more), it was an incredible learning opportunity.
I would like to extend a huge thank you to Michelle for giving me this opportunity. As I said during my presentation, I am still relatively young, and therefore, it is not often that I get such incredible aerospace opportunities as this one. Higher Orbits has twice given me the opportunity to work on experiments that have the potential to be launched to space (go team A.P.H.I.D.S!), and now I have been given the opportunity to attend one of the largest gatherings for aerospace research and development. Not only that, but I have been given the opportunity to speak on a panel there. Attending SciTech was truly one of the greatest things I have done so far in my aerospace career, and I hope that this conference can be a launch pad for more aerospace opportunities soon. AIAA SciTech has been such a great experience, and I am looking forward to my future in aerospace.
Written By Stellar Student Ben Santos
