Abstract
This thesis portfolio aims to approach sustainability as a question of how engineering
decisions distribute risks and benefits across environments, communities, and future generations.
The technical project designs a compact, cost‑effective, and modular test facility at the
University of Virginia’s Aerospace Research Laboratory to study detonation wave propagation
in geometries relevant to rotating detonation rocket engines (RDEs). The research project looks
at levee failures in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina (2005) and along the Green and White
Rivers in King County, Washington (2025). This analysis exposes uneven patterns of
vulnerability and protection – using environmental racism as a lens to examine who is
safeguarded – who is sacrificed, and how emergency management practices can either reinforce
or challenge unjust distributions of risk.
RDEs use supersonic detonation rather than conventional subsonic deflagration, enabling
higher specific impulse and more efficient use of propellant, which major aerospace actors view
as key to expanding space exploration and reducing the mass and fuel required for deep‑space
missions. The detonation waves in these engines travel continuously around an annular chamber,
allowing more useful work to be extracted from the same amount of fuel than in traditional
constant‑pressure combustion. The test facility designed in this thesis focuses on detonation
wave propagation in curved geometries that are analogous to those in full‑scale RDE combustion
chambers, with the goal of improving fundamental understanding of wave–geometry interactions
that govern performance, stability, and operational limits. By emphasizing low‑cost, lightweight,
and reconfigurable hardware, the facility aims to increase access to advanced propulsion research
for university laboratories and independent researchers, rather than confining RDE
experimentation to a small set of well‑funded institutions. It will operate within UVA’s
Aerospace Research Laboratory under formal Environmental Health and Safety oversight,
embedding environmental, health, and safety considerations into the design and implementation
process itself.
The STS research paper examines sustainability in flood‑prone regions, where levee and
land‑use decisions have long shaped which communities are protected and which are exposed to
harm. Using a qualitative comparative case study of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (2005)
and Green/White River levee failures in King County, Washington (2025), the paper analyzes
how environmental racism structures vulnerability, emergency response, and long‑term recovery.
In New Orleans, historically Black neighborhoods such as the Lower Ninth Ward were placed in
low‑lying, levee‑dependent areas while being excluded from key planning processes governing
flood protection, evacuation, and coastal restoration. When levees failed during Katrina, these
communities experienced severe flooding and delayed assistance, while post‑storm media
portrayals of Black residents as “looters” helped justify slow and uneven rescue and rebuilding,
reinforcing the idea that some lives are less worthy of urgent protection.
In King County, recent levee breaches along the Green and White Rivers have been
framed by officials as climate‑driven infrastructure challenges, emphasizing aging levees,
intensifying storms, and the need for rapid technical repair, public communication, and visible
emergency response. County agencies have used flood hazard management plans, online risk
maps, town halls, and consultation with residents and local tribes to communicate threats and
gather feedback on adaptation strategies. Evacuation orders during the 2025 levee failures were
issued quickly, refined as conditions evolved, and accompanied by door‑to‑door notifications
and swift‑water rescues, reflecting more transparent, but still incomplete, efforts toward socially
just flood governance. While structural inequities and Indigenous marginalization remain, the
King County case illustrates how institutions can move toward more participatory and equitable
forms of environmental risk management, even under the pressure of climate‑intensified
flooding.
Together, these projects argue that sustainability is not only about making systems more
efficient but also about confronting how infrastructures can reproduce or disrupt patterns of
extraction and racialized harm. The RDE test facility shows how next‑generation propulsion can
be developed in ways that reduce resource intensity and broaden research participation, aligning
performance gains with more inclusive access to experimental tools. At the same time, the STS
analysis reveals how past choices in petrochemical siting, coastal engineering, levee placement,
and emergency management have created fossil‑fuel “sacrifice zones” and racially uneven
exposure to flooding and disaster, particularly for Black communities along the lower
Mississippi River corridor. Viewed through a sustainability lens, the portfolio calls for engineers
to integrate efficiency, safety, and justice from the outset, so that future aerospace and
climate‑adaptation infrastructures support both planetary limits and equitable protection for
vulnerable communities.
Notes
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Technical Team Members: Josiah Martin, Alvin Kim, Connor Green, Brandon Dawson, Albert Castellon-Prado, Frederic Ramirez-Melenciano, Derek Liu, Tyler Verry, Spence Hartman, Jonathan Wang, Saif Rahman, Tyler Fisher, Ryan Malatesta
