Nicholas Corbin

Nicholas Corbin

Ph.D. Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

–> <!– Hands-on Skills ====== Vibration Testing: Siemens LMS, Polytec Manufacturing: 3D-printing, laser cutting, woodworking, composite-layups Certification: National Association of Rocketry (NAR) Level 1 High Power Rocketry certified Languages: English, Italian

–> <!– Design Team Experience ====== ESM Rocketry Senior Design, NASA USLI 2019 Blacksburg, VA Payload Subteam Lead and Document Editor January 2018 - May 2019

  • Co-founded and helped lead a team of 7 competing in NASA University Student Launch Initiative rocketry competition. The team designed and built a Level 2 high power rocket and deployable autonomous UAV payload system while adhering to NASA’s rigorous schedule of technical reports and presentations.

RockSat-X @ Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA Team Lead September 2017 – August 2018

  • Led team of 15 in the design and manufacturing of a 15-pound sounding rocket payload for launch with apogee of 90 miles from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in August each year.
  • Flat-sat platform: developed deployment, power, and telemetry platform for ejecting several PCB-based experiments from the sounding rocket. Mechanical Subteam Lead September 2016 – August 2017
  • Software-defined radio (SDR): demonstrated capabilities of SDR in space applications by tracking boats and planes, transmitting data to two ground stations, and receiving commands from the ground. –> <!– Entrepreneurship ====== UpStream Services LLC Reston, VA Startup Co-founder January 2020 - Present

  • Startup innovating in waste management, last-mile delivery, ecommerce, and green technologies. –> <!– Mentorship and Outreach ====== Virginia Tech ESM senior design advisor Blacksburg, VA Team sponsor/advisor August 2020 - May 2021

  • Sponsoring and mentoring a senior design team through UpStream Services LLC startup to develop innovative waste-measurement device.

VAST undergraduate research mentor Blacksburg, VA Student mentor September 2019 - January 2020

  • Helped mentor undergraduate researchers in the VAST lab under Dr. Tarazaga. Guided and worked with Kam Mize to develop alternative approach to projection methods for component testing, resulting in SAVE conference presentation. Guided Tyler Pugh in design and fabrication of a rotating unbalance device for de-icing of outdoor netted structure.

Rocketry outreach New River Valley, VA Floyd Elementary School Outreach February 2019

  • Helped organize and run a day-long outreach event with Floyd Elementary School to expose 251 students (grades 1-5) to STEM and rocketry. Educated students with a short lesson relating their science class topics to rocketry, and subsequently helped students design and build their own “bubble rockets” powered by effervescent tablets as detailed in NASA’s “Build a Bubble-Powered Rocket” lesson plan.

Blacksburg High School FlatSat Project January 2018 – August 2018

  • Mentored and worked with three student teams at Blacksburg High School to ideate, design, build, and test three deployable experiments to launch on our RockSat-X payload platform to space from NASA Wallops. The Virginia Tech team, under my leadership, designed and built a deployment, power, and telemetry platform for small, PCB-based deployable experiments. We then partnered with Blacksburg High School to have students build the experiments of their choice, which ultimately were 1) a reaction-control experiment to try to control the positioning of the deployables, 2) a Geiger counter to measure radiation in the thermosphere, and 3) a spectrometry experiment to measure the makeup of the thermosphere.

Fellowships and Awards

  • UCSD Powell Fellowship 2021 This award is given to outstanding doctoral students in UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering.

  • Liviu Librescu Memorial Fellowship 2020 This award is given to Virginia Tech Engineering Mechanics graduate students with outstanding academic records and who have demonstrated strong leadership potential and commitment to professional or community service.

  • NSF GRFP Honorable Mention 2020 This award is given to meritorious applicants who do not receive GRFP Fellowship awards, and is considered a significant national academic achievement and provides access to cyberinfrastructure resources through the XSEDE.

  • James H. Sword Award 2019 This award is given to Virginia Tech Engineering Science and Mechanics students in recognition of an Outstanding Senior Project.

Extracurricular Activities

  • Honors Residential College at Virginia Tech 2015 - 2019 Held Apartment Fellow leadership role in the HRC Honors community at Virginia Tech.
  • Jazz Guitar 2007 - Present Study and occasionally perform jazz music in my free-time.