Abstract
Technical Project: Test Facility Design for Detonation Characterization Through Curved Rectangular Channels
My technical project focused on the design of a compact, cost-effective, and modular test facility for studying detonation wave propagation through curved rectangular channels. This work supports research on rotating detonation rocket engines, which use supersonic combustion rather than conventional subsonic deflagration to improve propulsion efficiency. The facility was designed to investigate how detonation waves behave as they move through curved geometries similar to those found in annular RDRE combustion chambers. The project included three primary subsystems: a gas and ignition subsystem, a main test structure, and a diagnostics subsystem. Together, these systems allow controlled delivery and ignition of an ethylene-oxygen-nitrogen mixture, safe detonation initiation, and measurement of wave velocity, flame-shock coupling, and detonation cell structure. The technical design also emphasized accessibility by creating a low-cost, low-mass, and modifiable facility that could lower barriers to detonation research for university laboratories and future student teams.
Beyond its technical goals, this project required careful attention to safety, ethics, and professional responsibility. Because the test facility involves flammable gases, high-pressure combustion, and detonation behavior, the design incorporated fail-safe mechanisms such as normally closed feed valves, normally open vent and purge valves, check valves, flashback arrestors, remote ignition, and remote valve actuation. The project also acknowledged the dual-use nature of detonation-based propulsion technology, since RDRE research can support both civilian spaceflight and defense applications. For that reason, the project’s broader significance lies not only in advancing propulsion research but also in demonstrating how experimental aerospace systems must balance innovation, safety, institutional oversight, and responsible engineering practice.
STS Project: Filmmaking as Technological Expression
My STS research project examined how filmmaking technologies shape the way technology itself is depicted on screen. The paper focused on three case studies: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park, and Ready Player One. Each film represents a different moment in the history of effects-driven cinema, from early digital character effects, to hybrid practical and digital effects, to virtual production and motion-capture workflows. The central argument of the project was that production technologies are not neutral tools used only to deliver a finished story. Instead, they help determine what kinds of realism, movement, embodiment, immersion, and emotional response become possible. In these films, the tools used to create technological images also shaped the meaning of the technologies represented within the narrative.
This project treated film as a sociotechnical system because movies do not simply reflect cultural ideas about technology; they actively help construct them. Terminator 2 used digital effects to make technology appear fluid, adaptive, and difficult to contain. Jurassic Park combined CGI, animatronics, and live-action cinematography to make engineered life feel physically credible while also dramatizing the failure of technological control. Ready Player One used virtual production and motion capture to depict digital technology as an immersive social environment. Together, these examples show that blockbuster films help audiences imagine what technology is, what it can do, and whether it should be understood as threatening, wondrous, liberating, unstable, or normal. The project therefore argues that production choices matter culturally because they influence how technological futures become visible and persuasive to mass audiences.
Notes
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Technical Advisor: Chole Dedic
STS Advisor: Karina Ripley
Technical Team Members: Connor Green, Alvin Kim, Irion Thompson, Josiah Martin, Brandon Dawson, Albert Castellon-Prado, Frederic Ramirez-Melenciano, Derek Liu, Tyler Verry, Spence Hartman, Jonathan Wang, Saif Rahman, Ryan Malatesta
