William Bennett: From UTA's Aerospace Engineering Program to Building the Future of Space Flight at Sierra Space
William Bennett
Spotlight: : William Bennett, GNC Engineering Intern at Sierra Space
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Student Organization: UTA AeroMavs
William is a senior aerospace engineering major. Over the summer, he spent 12 weeks as a GNC Engineering Intern at Sierra Space, gaining hands-on experience in satellite guidance, navigation, and control.
“The most rewarding part of the internship was being given the opportunity to take ownership of a major task, developing a satellite navigation algorithm, and be responsible for executing each step of the development cycle from initial design to the final verification and validation.”
Notes From William
Building Satellite Navigation Systems
As a GNC Engineering Intern, William's main project was developing and implementing an attitude determination Kalman filter algorithm in MATLAB/Simulink. The algorithm allows a satellite to determine how it is oriented in space and was developed for integration with the GNC simulation architecture.
Toward the end of his internship, William also helped troubleshoot an issue in one of the simulation models, where a thruster model was not performing as expected and the root cause was undetermined.
How UTA Prepared Him for the Experience
William credits his involvement in extracurricular activities in the College of Engineering as an important part of his preparation.
His time as a technical lead with UTA's rocketry club, AeroMavs, provided relevant, hands-on technical experience with MATLAB/Simulink, programming and controls theory—skills he leveraged directly during his internship.
In addition, several officers of the UTA AIAA chapter helped refine his résumé and provided interview advice. William also gained experience with advanced orbital mechanics through the Astronautics 2 aerospace technical elective taught by Dr. Benavides.
Skills Beyond the Classroom
Through his internship, William gained skills in:
- Satellite attitude determination and Kalman filtering
- Coding
- An overview of some of the details and challenges involved in Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO)
- Approaching complex engineering problems
- Breaking complex problems into achievable steps
- Validating solutions to confirm they perform as expected
A Memorable Experience
One of William's most memorable experiences was walking underneath the Dream Chaser flight vehicle, Tenacity, and also walking around inside its cargo hold.
Another meaningful experience was compiling a comprehensive presentation on his work and presenting it to the Sierra Space GNC team mid-summer. He later presented a condensed version to engineers, interns, and leadership as part of the intern final presentations at the end of the internship.
Connecting the Internship to His Future
William gained relevant industry experience in the field of GNC that he plans to take into his extracurricular projects. It also confirmed that GNC/astrodynamics is the field of aerospace he wants to work in.
Beyond the technical experience, William had the opportunity to make many meaningful connections with both fellow interns and engineers.
William's Advice to Future UTA Engineering Students
“For other UTA students seeking internships, I recommend getting involved hands-on with an extracurricular that gives both technical and leadership experience in an area you're interested in. Also, join professional organizations that give opportunities for networking and workshops for résumé/interview advice, for example. And finally, never underestimate your skills; even if you don't think you're a perfect match for a position (whether an internship/job or a leadership position at a club/extracurricular), apply anyway. You might fit the role better than you think!”
Take the Next Step
William's experience demonstrates how classroom learning, hands-on extracurricular involvement, leadership and professional networking can help UTA engineering students turn their interests into real-world engineering experience.
Some of Our Featured Interns
Jorge Arturo Levario-Delagarza interned at Lockheed Martin, NASA, and SpaceX. He majored in mechanical engineering with a minor in biomedical engineering.
Kyra Delgado interned at Dunaway. She majored in Civil Engineering
Braxton Smith interned at Lennox International. He majored in mechanical engineering.
William Bennett interned at Sierra Space. He majored in Aerospace Engineering.
Ashish Jaiswal interned at Meta. He majored in computer science.
Lauren Gomez interned at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. She majored in Biomedical Engineering.
Christopher Sean Timmons interned at the WGI and Kyle Paul Construction. He majored in Architectural Engineering.
Bedford Oyinkro interned at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. He majored in aerospace engineering.
Cindy Cruz-Rodriguez interned at General Motors. She majored in industrial engineering.
Andres Landeros interned at Parker Aerospace. He majored in Mechanical Engineering..
Diganth Prakash interned at Nokia. He majored in Computer Sciance
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Majors
Aerospace Engineering
Architectural Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Construction Management
Electrical Engineering
Industrial Engineering
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Resource and Energy Engineering
Software Engineering
Minors
Aerospace Engineering Minor
Biomedical Engineering Minor
Computer Science Minor
Electrical Engineering Minor
Industrial Engineering Minor
Materials Science & Engineering Minor
Mechanical Engineering Minor
Nanotechnology Minor
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Space Systems Minor
Sustainable Engineering Minor