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Working on the Mars Rover with Wycombe Abbey Senior, Scarlett Koller

On the 28th of April, Wycombe Abbey Senior Scarlett Koller (C281) gave us a talk over zoom, titled ‘How I got to work on the Mars Rover’. She began the talk by describing her time at Wycombe and the career choices she had made before she got to work on the Mars 2020 ‘Perseverance’ Rover. She was a part of Barry house and her time at Wycombe was memorable; however, she noted that Computer Science was not offered at Wycombe when she was here and that she wishes she had the opportunity to take the subject! Scarlett attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering; she was able to take many courses ranging from Systems engineering to Software development. After university, Scarlett went on to work at SpaceX on the Crew Dragon capsule - a spacecraft designed to carry up to 7 humans and cargo to space. Having listened to her talk about 2 years of working at SpaceX, we then learnt about Scarlett's experience working at NASA JPL as a test-bed engineer for 'Perseverance', the rover that recently landed on Mars in February. It was amazing to hear about her experience of learning on the job and working as part of a team of thousands of people. We all learnt more about what it means to be working as a test-bed engineer, as well as the balance within engineering of the challenges of working on systems but more importantly with people. It was interesting to learn about how important basic computer and coding skills have been for her career and her motivation behind doing engineering was inspiring. She is now working on a rover due to land on the metal asteroid ‘Psyche’. Overall, Scarlett's talk motivated us all to want to get into a career which would shape the future. All her experiences and future aspirations astounded us. Her talk also made us realise broad potential of STEM careers which hadn't previously considered. She was a captivating speaker to listen to and we were all so grateful to her for taking the time to address us. Alison and Grace, LVI Note from Mr Porter: Please could you emphasise that it was a Computer Science Society talk that was particularly relevant as our LIVs do a project based on the Mars Rover project.

Wycombe Abbey Senior, Scarlett Koller (C281), became a Systems Testbed Engineer within the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA in 2019, and for the last two years has been working on the Mars 2020 Mission Systems Testbed, acting as one of the ‘stunt doubles’ on Earth. After leaving School, Scarlett moved to the US to study Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 2016. Prior to her role at NASA, Scarlett previously worked on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and was involved in testing to ensure the capsule was safe for astronauts to travel into space.

Below you will see a report from Alison and Grace (LVI) about a talk that she gave to the Computer Science Society in April.

 

We welcomed Senior, Scarlett Koller, to give a talk about ‘How I got to work on the Mars Rover’, which was part of our ongoing Computer Science projects this year, with a particular interest in the launch of the Mars Rover.

She began the talk by describing her time at School and the career choices she had made before she got to work on the Mars 2020 ‘Perseverance’ Rover. She was in Barry House and her time at Wycombe Abbey was memorable; however, she noted that Computer Science was not offered at School when she was there and that she wishes she had the opportunity to take the subject.

Scarlett attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. When she was there she was able to take many courses ranging from systems engineering to software development. After university, Scarlett went on to work at SpaceX on the Crew Dragon capsule – a spacecraft designed to carry up to seven humans and cargo into space.

Having listened to her talk about her two years of working at SpaceX, she then went on to tell us about her experience working at NASA JPL as a test-bed engineer for ‘Perseverance’, the rover that landed on Mars in February. It was amazing to hear about her experience of learning on the job and working as part of a team of thousands of people. We all learnt more about what it means to be working as a test-bed engineer, as well as the balance between the challenges of working on systems and with people. It was interesting to learn how important basic computer and coding skills have been for her career and her motivation behind studying and working in engineering was inspiring. She also let us know about her next project which involves working on a rover due to land on the metal asteroid ‘Psyche’.

Overall, Scarlett’s talk motivated us all to want to move into an engineering career that would shape the future. All her experiences and future aspirations astounded us and made us realise the broad potential of STEM careers that we hadn’t previously considered. She was a captivating speaker to listen to and we were all so grateful to her for taking the time to address us. Thankyou!

Alison and Grace, LVI

 

Recently, Scarlett spoke to our Seniors’ Office about why she wanted to follow a career in the Aerospace industry. She said “I first became interested in engineering as a career during a visit to CERN during my AS level year at Wycombe Abbey. I was really drawn in by how engineers had actually done the work of designing such a huge collider and cooling huge numbers of superconducting magnets. When I started at MIT, I took an introductory course taught by an astronaut that really captured my imagination. Not only is space just incredibly cool, but I was really interested in the way my professor drew attention to the complicated interactions within tightly coupled aerospace systems. My interest only grew as I took more courses in aerodynamics, mechanics, propulsion and structures.” She also offered this advise to current Wycombe Abbey pupils: “It took me until university to really focus in on aerospace engineering as the discipline I wanted to study. Even now, I am working on systems engineering, which is quite different from propulsion engineering that I was especially keen on as a student. I would advise anyone interested in engineering to keep an open mind and avoid pigeonholing themselves. If you find yourself interested in something you had not expected, don’t be afraid to try something new. Changing your mind about where you want to direct your career can be daunting, but it is important to regularly reassess what it is that interests you most and how you can go about doing that. Keeping open to new opportunities and new directions is a good way to ensure your career is as interesting as you can make it.”