Summer well spent: Engineering student achieves dream of working at NASA
“Stick to your goals at a young age,” he said.
It’s that kind of mindset that helped Frecka achieve a goal of his own, working in a cooperative program at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Frecka, who received his co-op with the help of Engineering Career Services, spends the majority of his day coding on and testing hardware. He has also been working on creating new classes within the flight simulations, including a class for a new MIL-STD-1553 card. This card controls the transmission and receipt of various data that is sent from one device to another on an airplane and will be used for all types of plane simulations.
Frecka’s favorite part of working with NASA thus far was seeing the conclusion of the space shuttle program with the landing of Endeavour, a retired orbiter. He got the chance to witness Endeavour, riding on top of its modified 747 carrier aircraft, land at Dryden and take off the next day on its final flight into retirement in September 2012.
Adapting to his co-op at NASA proved simple for Frecka, which he credits to The Ohio State University College of Engineering.
“Due in part to the education Ohio State has provided me, I had little to no problem adjusting and learning,” he said.
Frecka believes that others can also achieve their engineering career goals with a few simple steps.
“Dream big and look forward to learning about math and science,” he said. “Anyone can do it if they just put in the work!”
