Abstract
My technical project and STS research are connected through balancing the safety and innovation of emerging technologies that have the potential to be utilized in government defense applications. My capstone project was in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, PulseTex, and CCAM, who are affiliated with military contracting. This work focuses on improving the adhesion strength of ceramic coatings in turbine engine components used in high performance defense related applications. My STS thesis examines the development of autonomous AI agents, specifically OpenClaw. OpenClaw is a technology that has continued to grow and gain popularity despite known safety risks. This is very relevant in today’s world, given that companies like OpenAI have recently gained government defense contracts (Metz, 2025). Through these projects, I explore how technologies with military affiliation continue to rapidly advance, but careful consideration is required to ensure both their effectiveness and safety.
My technical work investigates how laser surface texturing on aerospace ceramic coatings can improve adhesion. These coatings protect the turbine blade substrate from extreme heat and corrosion. The current issue is poor adhesion between the coating and substrate, leading to material failure, which reduces aircraft safety. To solve this, research and design were conducted to create laser textured surface patterns to increase mechanical interlocking between material surfaces. We designed textured patterns, completed sample preparation, and developed an adhesion testing method to evaluate this technology's effects. From this work, ceramic coatings may become more reliable and widely used in aircraft turbine engines in the future.
My STS thesis looks into how an autonomous AI agent known as OpenClaw continued to gain support even after a publicized safety failure. For the case explored, an expert in the field lost large amounts of personal email data even after instructing it not to, presenting significant user control and safety concerns (Chandonnet, 2026). Through Thomas Hughes’s framework of technological momentum, my STS thesis provides insight into how technologies continue to be adopted despite known risks (Hughes, 1914). I discuss how OpenClaw’s continued growth is driven by its perceived usefulness, even when safety concerns are still being improved on. These failures often prompt additional safety improvements, reinforcing continued adoption.
The case demonstrates how AI is rapidly developing, and support for safety should also be met at the same pace.
Working on these two projects gave me more insight into how safety and innovation interact and develop simultaneously in engineering technologies. My capstone project showed me how much research quality control is put into a specific material technology before applying it in a real product, since aerospace failure can have severe consequences. My STS work provided a contrasting perspective, where technologies in other fields are released and still used despite clear safety issues due to their usefulness and demand, which helps drive continued safety improvements over time. Together, I have learned from these projects that being a responsible engineer requires one to not only understand how something works, but also focusing on safety in terms of how and why others will use new technologies.
