Serli Alexandi is pursuing her final year of her Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Viterbi School of Engineering. She is the Water Flow Test Stand (WFTS) Feed Systems Responsible Engineer. She joined LPL through the Base 11 program, and here is an account of her experience at LPL:
I had a great experience working with graduate students. It was definitely a huge learning curve. Since I was accepted in Base 11 academic year-round fellowship, I was also selected for summer internship on the recommendations of my mentors at LPL.
I had the chance to be part of wide range of projects starting from design to building and testing. One of the memories that stands out for me was the static fire of one of LPL’s engines at the Mojave desert shortly after I joined the lab.
LPL had a huge impact on my decision for transferring to USC not only because of the interesting projects and their resources but also the healthy, friendly environment of the lab, where everyone was putting forward their best, and also helping each other to reach their common goal. One of the many things that I liked about LPL was their continuous effort for improvement and operating close to industry standards.
I definitely want to work in the aerospace industry but I don’t have any specific job function in mind for now. I’m hoping to get broader perspective on overall engineering jobs in industry this summer through my
internship at EBAD (Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense Company) as a product engineer.
What impressed me most about the lab were the projects – building rocket engines, testing, static fire, I definitely fell in love with the campus from day one. People in the lab were all nice and treated me as a team member even though at the time, I didn’t have half of their knowledge. They made me feel welcomed and appreciated. My interactions with our head mentor at the time, Professor Dave Barnhart, were also nice. He was always there to help and answer our questions.
In addition, I would like to say that my lab mentors John and Mike were really great mentors and teachers. It’s really hard to put down in words all that they’ve done for us, but they put a lot of effort in preparing tasks for us, and helping us achieve them.
Serli is currently spending her summer of 2020 interning at EBAD as a Product Engineer, where she is working on tooling design and process review for lean manufacturing.