AATHAVAN
SENTHILKUMAR

I am a 5th year MS Mechanical Engineering student at UC Berkeley passionate about design engineering, art, film, and creating positive impacts on my community.

At heart, I am a creator. I have been inventing and engineering devices since I was 13, winning several divisional, regional, and state awards.

Space is the final frontier and I firmly believe humanity has a future in the stars. My passion for space led to my internships as a Manufacturing Engineer at Stoke Space for the fully-reusable Nova rocket, a Build Reliability Engineer at SpaceX for the Merlin engine, and as a Mechanical Design Engineer at Firefly Aerospace working on the Alpha launch vehicle.

I also worked as a Propulsion Engineer at the UC Berkeley Space Technology and Rocketry (STAR) team working towards building a Liquid Engine Rocket to cross the Karman Line. I also worked as a Design Engineer at Space Technology at Cal (STAC) designing a high altitude autonomous deployment vehicle system for the NASA FLOATing Dragon competition.

Formula 1 and Formula E sparked my ardor for cars, vehicle design, and electric vehicles where sustainability, the environment, and cutting-edge technologies intersect. I have worked as a Design Engineer on the Berkeley Solar Vehicle team and our flagship race vehicle, Excalibur, getting the car to win fastest lap at the Formula Sun Grand Prix 2024 in Kentucky.

Taking my first nuclear engineering class at Berkeley opened my eyes to the incredible engineering required to split atoms and has me excited more than ever for the future of energy systems on Earth, the Moon, and beyond.

I am also an avid reader with a deep-running passion for the arts including painting, sketching, and playing piano. I enjoy acrylic painting, inking, industrial designing, and graphite sketching! With a soft spot for sci-fi, creativity in the world of art and technology astounds me.

You can always catch me reading sci-fi novels or ready to talk about the latest Christopher Nolan film!