As a summer intern at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, I worked on LLAMAS, a spectrograph array for the Magellan Telescopes in Chile. This was my first professional engineering job and an opportunity to work alongside highly skilled engineers in a research environment, which is what I want to do professionally.

Challenges included managing deadlines, adapting to setbacks, and balancing quality with efficiency. For example, I helped redesign 3D-printed light blockers to be both structural and lightweight, ensuring they were interchangeable while keeping print times reasonable.

My role evolved over two summers:

• Year 1: Assembled the cooling system, began assembling large aluminum housings, and created manufacturing drawings from cad files.

• Year 2: Oversaw housing assembly, wrote procedures for installing the spectrograph benches into their housings, designed and printed light blockers, and operated the 3D printer.
  

I gained experience in SolidWorks assemblies, engineering documentation, project management, 3D printing design, CMM arm operation, CNC milling, and professional engineering workflows. I also learned how to balance precision with efficiency, ensuring high-quality results without unnecessary perfectionism.