Ashton Johnston on LinkedIn: Congratulations Gracie and team on another podium placement in the NASA… (2024)

I’m excited to share that I’m starting a new position as Assistant Program Manager in addition to my roles as a Section Supervisor and Embedded/Controls engineer. I'm looking forward to working with our government sponsors to shape the technology of the future.

This content isn’t available here

Access this content and more in the LinkedIn app

33

3 Comments

It's not often you see yourself on the cover of a NASA RFP (second from the right) 😅

25

3 Comments

The UNCC Rocketry team placed 2nd overall in the NASA USLI competition!!! They also took home 1st place Documentation and Safety, 2nd place Altitude, and 3rd place Payload and Social Media!I'm extremely proud of these students. They put in a LOT of hard work and managed some difficult challenges this year. And on top of that, they had to put up with me looking over their shoulders the whole time :) Seeing the innovation, tenacity and growth of these future engineers is such an honor, and I'm looking forward to mentoring next year's team.This makes 6 years in a row in the top 2 places for the team. Quite the winning streak.

50

This was one of the most intense projects I've ever taken on. From concept to completed thesis in less than a year. Almost every weekend since January 2022 was spent tweaking CAD, running CFD, writing MATLAB and LaTex, and wondering why I did this to myself...but it's almost done, and I'm proud of the work. I'm looking forward to hanging my degree on the wall and sleeping for 3 weeks straight 🍻

29

5 Comments

The UNCC 49er Rocketry Team is still raising funds for this year's competition. They've placed 1st for 2 years running now! Any support you can give will help them win for the 3rd year in a row.

23

Excited to share that I'll be starting as a Section Supervisor in addition to my roles as an Embedded/Controls Engineer and Project Manager. I'm looking forward to taking on this new role as a mentor and coach for my section and other staff members.

This content isn’t available here

Access this content and more in the LinkedIn app

24

I gave my mid-thesis update to my committee today. Just 4 months to go until my defense. My thesis is on the simulation and control of an underwater glider, which uses changes in buoyancy to glide through the water column. I developed a simplified CAD model of a Slocum glider, ran CFD to determine the nonlinear hydrodynamic coefficients that govern the vehicle's motion, and built out a 6-DOF numerical model of the vehicle in MATLAB. I then linearized the nonlinear dynamics of the vehicle at various operating points and have started the process of calculating gains for PID controllers that operate on those linearized representations. I've demonstrated improved control of the pitch and heading angles, and will continue working on developing a gain-tuning procedure and characterizing the stability and robustness of the gain-scheduled controller. I've lost count of how many long nights I've put into this thesis so far, but I've learned so much, and can't wait to apply this knowledge to my work. The design and control of underwater vehicles has become a passion of mine, and I'm looking forward to contributing to the research in this field in a way that is (hopefully) meaningful and reproducible.

29

7 Comments

The UNCC Rocketry team placed 1st overall in the NASA USLI competition!!! They also took home 1st place Payload and Altitude, and 2nd place Documentation and Best Looking Rocket! I'm really proud of these students. They put in a LOT of hard work and dealt with quite a lot of adversity this year. And on top of that, they had to put up with me looking over their shoulders the whole time :) This is 2 years in a row in 1st place, and I think 5 years in a row in the top 2 places. Such an amazing winning streak for an engineering program that doesn't have an Aerospace degree option.

186

7 Comments

It was an honor to serve as the electrical/software mentor this year for the 49er Rocketry Team. They placed 1st nationally, out of over 50 teams, some of which were better funded and had more students involved. This is a huge achievement for the team, and the UNCC engineering program as a whole. I'm looking forward to working with next year's team and continuing the long history of success we've had in the NASA USLI competition.

37

1 Comment