This is the same problem SpaceX had to solve for Falcon 9. It sits at the intersection of control theory, real-time software, sensor fusion, and flight dynamics. Graduate-level material — and he's doing it as an undergrad.
Every subteam on a rocket matters, but GNC is the one where if you get it wrong, nothing else matters. The engine can be perfect, the composites beautiful, the electronics flawless — if GNC can't keep the rocket pointed and control the descent, you get a crater. That's why GNC leads are often the technical face of any rocket program.
On resume terms: "GNC engineer, propulsive-lander project" is arguably the single highest-signal line an aerospace undergrad can put on paper.
Beyond ARCS, Simon has access to the DREAMS Lab — Dr. Jnaneshwar Das's robotics research group at ASU SESE. That's a rare undergrad invite; the lab does field robotics, autonomous systems, and applied AI.
His personal hardware work centers on the STM32G4 — he's driving the power & attitude system on that MCU. The broader ARCS team uses NXP GHz-class microcontrollers for guidance/navigation via the MCUXpresso SDK.
Simon interned at Exquadrum, a defense-propulsion company in Victorville, California. His project: built a local, private LLM AI bot — running on-premise, no cloud. That's the exact stack pattern defense contractors need for anything touching sensitive IP or classified environments (no data leaves the building).
Exquadrum was subsequently acquired by Mach Industries and rolled into their new propulsion arm, Mach Energetics. That puts Simon's internship right in the middle of the current hypersonics / next-gen propulsion wave — the same space that companies like Anduril, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are hiring aggressively into.
Notable: his brother Max also interned at Exquadrum the same season, on a completely different project (in-space part fabrication automation). Two engineers, one company, two very different problems.
A command-line shell built from scratch. Supports built-in commands (cd, exit, echo, pwd) plus launching arbitrary programs. Involved input parsing, process management, and low-level OS work — the kind of project that teaches you how Unix actually works.
Interactive memory-matching game with adjustable grid sizes, difficulty settings, input validation, and full game-state management. Heavy focus on OOP fundamentals — inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation done properly.
A 2D side-scrolling game: player movement, procedurally generated obstacles, scrolling world, collision + boundary detection, main menu, and game-over screen. Practical game-dev experience on top of solid C++ fundamentals.
Pro-grade bare-metal embedded stack. This is what senior firmware engineers use — not the beginner IDE-and-hand-holding setup.
Simon picked (or was picked into) the hardest and most prestigious subteam in ARCS, on a project that maps directly to what SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab actually do. Combine that with a Rust shell built for fun, a real Exquadrum internship, and DREAMS Lab access — and his resume is going to open serious doors when he graduates.
Good questions to ask him: