Alumna returns to sponsor Design Day project

Monday
Katy Smith
Five people in blue shirts pose for a photo with a woman in a tan vest.

Sierra Rose (BS, mechanical engineering, 2019) works as an aeronautical engineer at Northrop Grumman Space Systems performing design, integration, and test engineering for the intercontinental ballistic missile program. She is currently designing a new integrated booster. In her few years in the industry, she has gained experience in composites, advanced CAD design, cable design, motor integration and vehicle integration.

Rose recently performed a Q&A with the College of Engineering Interdisciplinary Capstone program.

Tell us about your capstone project during your University of Arizona education.

My project was to design and test an event data recorder for Northrop Grumman. EDRs are used in transit to record transportation conditions for rocket motors and sensitive vehicle structures. If an event occurs during shipment, the data allows the company to determine if the product is viable for the mission. While surviving the span of a week, the designed EDR measured temperature, humidity and positional displacement the motor or structure was introduced to.

Did your experience in the capstone program prepare you for your career?

The capstone project introduced me to new things I would later experience in my career, including vendor communications, material procurement, manufacturing and multidisciplinary collaboration. The coursework taught students to solve problems analytically, but not how to produce a product. A lot more goes into a design than the analysis. Perhaps this was where I realized that not all problems can be solved with math.

How long has your company been sponsoring projects? How long have you personally been involved with it?

Northrop Grumman Space Systems – formerly Orbital ATK – began sponsoring projects well before my time. In the last five years, I have mentored the following projects: Lattice Winding Machine, Rapid Isolators, Thermal Rocket Cover and Retraction System, Spin Balance Mechanism, and a Subsonic Wind Tunnel. I love being involved with the engineering capstone program, and I am excited to sponsor another project this upcoming year.