Getting to work on cutting-edge research is a
privilege typically reserved for graduate students, but South Dakota Mines is
not your typical university, and Jaden Dougal, a junior mechanical engineering
major from Rockwall, Texas, is not your typical student.
Dougal has been helping conduct research on laser
ablation for efficient space debris removal. She describes it as using
space-based lasers to target debris in low earth orbit: shooting them with a
nanosecond or femtosecond laser to change the debris’ trajectory — either slow
it down enough to fall into the Earth’s atmosphere to burn up or speed it up
enough to be sent to a graveyard orbit.
Dougal can participate in this research thanks to
Prasoon Diwakar, PhD, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and
research supported from the NASA South Dakota Space Grant Consortium.
“Dr. Diwakar reached out to me at the end of my
sophomore year and asked if I would like to conduct research with him. I said
yes, but I wanted to be involved with an aerospace project, so we started researching
how to remove and mitigate space debris using lasers,” Dougal said.
She got involved because she wanted to be active in her
department and perform academic work, such as research, in the aerospace field.
She plans on pursuing a career in that industry upon graduating from Mines,
either continuing her research or designing materials for heat transfer on
spacecraft.
She adds that Diwakar has been an “incredible” research
advisor throughout the process.
“He has guided me through grant applications,
conference applications, poster design and how to be successful in the field,”
she said. “I have learned so much from him, and I am truly grateful for this
opportunity to work with him.”
Recently, Dougal’s research took her to the American
Physical Society’s (APS) March meeting in Minneapolis, Minn. Dougal heard about
the opportunity through Diwakar and applied online for an undergraduate poster
presentation.
Dougal’s presentation session lasted for three hours
and included several meetings with judges. Dougal said she had no more than
five minutes of downtime between visitors to her poster. After the
presentation, she was named one of the top presenters of the session.
But that wasn’t the only big thing that happened to
Dougal in March. She was accepted into graduate school at Mines and will continue
her research on laser ablation for her master’s thesis.
She picked Mines because she had wanted to be an
engineer since visiting the Johnson Space Center for a Girl Scout trip when she
was nine years old and falling in love with both aerospace and engineering.
Wanting to move to a different part of the country, she found home at Mines after
meeting with Pierre Larochelle, PhD, professor and department head of
mechanical engineering at Mines.
“I think that if you truly want to be an engineer,
there is no better education than South Dakota Mines,” she said.