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Michael Bonnet

Spacecraft Software Engineer

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About Me

Hello! I'm Michael Bonnet. I am a Spacecraft Software Engineer and alumnus of the University of Texas at Arlington (Computer Science and Unmanned Vehicle Systems, May 2022).



I'm an enthusiast in software applications for space and aerospace, especially in the realm of autonomy. I fell in love with my code making real-life things move and haven't looked back. Having done enterprise projects in modeling and simulation, embedded, cloud, and mission control/fullstack, my skills and interests lie primarily in the fields of autonomy, aerospace, and robotics. My strong work ethic, interpersonal skills, industry experience, and technical prowess make me a great team member, student, and learner.



When not working or studying, I enjoy learning about aviation, doing personal robotics and open source projects, climbing and camping, and volunteering.

Experience

Apex Space

Spacecraft Software Engineer | Los Angeles, CA

  • Participated in trade studies, design, and design reviews for Apex Space's flight software and software-in-the-loop (SIL) frameworks, collaborating with systems engineering, GNC engineering, and hardware-in-the-loop engineering teams
  • Designed, developed, and tested MAX flight software (C++) for Apex's varied satellite bus products
  • Designed and debugged STK spacecraft dynamics simulation runs for mission analysis, mission planning, and regression/Monte Carlo tests
  • Operated Aries SN-1 "Call to Adventure" spacecraft as Mission Operator throughout launch and early orbit phase and standard operations

Turion Space

Flight Software Engineer | Irvine, CA

  • Designed and hardware-tested payload software in embedded C and C++ for DROID-001, a small photoreconnaissance spacecraft launched to low-earth orbit in June 2023
  • Developed custom Mission Control software using the Ruby on Rails-based COSMOS OpenC3 framework hosted on Amazon Web Services used for on-orbit spacecraft operations
  • Operated DROID.001 spacecraft as certified Mission Operator and Flight Director throughout launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) of the mission
  • Built Turion Space's proprietary STARFIRE API in Go using the Echo framework and a Postgres backend database for cataloguing and distributing orbital space domain awareness data, deploying to AWS
  • Developed Turion Space's internal spacecraft dynamics simulation library, enabling safe operation of a constellation of near-real-time space-to-space photoreconnaisance satellites
  • Implemented astrodynamics and astronomical algorithms in a library for widespread internal company use

Terran Orbital

Flight Software Engineer | Irvine, CA

  • Configured custom Linux-based operating systems for NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator satellites in low-earth orbit and for customers using Terran Orbital-designed satellite buses for their own missions
  • Wrote, tested, and flew drivers for NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 ("T-BIRD") and 4 ("LISA-T") emerging technology demonstration 6U satellites
  • Designed, developed, unit tested, and deployed performant C++ embedded software for orbital satellite solar panel arrays and star trackers
  • Tested, evaluated, and debugged flight software and payload hardware on projects totaling dozens of spacecraft
  • Supported launches of company and customer payloads to low-earth orbit (LEO) and translunar trajectories with flight software troubleshooting both in the Mission Control Center and on call

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control

Software Engineer Intern | Grand Prairie, TX

  • Worked as a student intern with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control within Lockheed's College Work Experience Program (CWEP) partnership with UT Arlington
  • Deployed, integrated, and maintained Jira issue tracking software for Missiles and Fire Control division
  • Improved digital transformation principles and practices in support of IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) and production manufacturing
  • Integrated and deployed development solutions with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

Software Engineer Intern | Fort Worth, TX

  • Earned the privilege of working part-time during the Fall 2021 semester, beyond the initial summer-long full-time internship
  • Researched DevOps tools for use by my team and presented research report that has lead to changes in development workflow using the tools recommended
  • Developed practices and documentation for properly using Git version control where it hadn't been fully taken advantage of before, leading to changes in development workflow and code review practices
  • Developed data integration software using Java and Java-based tools, reducing time spent by Aeronautics engineers on getting the data needed for critical work

MineralWare

Development Team Intern | Fort Worth, TX

  • Successfully completed a semester-long internship, earning the trust and respectof my team and supervisors while working in an Agile development cycle
  • Worked in Zope framework on the MineralWare web application using skills in HTML, CSS, Python, Javascript, Ajax, and SQL
  • Overhauled all styles for the entire MineralWare application
  • Redesigned the client-facing Tract Management page
  • Implemented a system to automatically update static resources in the Mineral-Ware application upon release of new versions, solving a common client issue

Education

University of Texas at Arlington

Jan 2019 - May 2022

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

For senior project, led a six-engineer team in the design, construction, and demonstration of a hexacopter UAV system that delivers a radio-controlled penetration testing platform - a Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux - to the vicinity of a target network. The operator then directs the penetration testing Raspberry Pi to scan the target network for vulnerabilities and exploit any that are found.

Coursework: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Data Science, Unmanned Vehicle Systems, Algorithms & Data Structures, RF Engineering, Software Engineering, C, C++, Java, ARM Assembly

University of Texas at Arlington

Jan 2019 - May 2022

Certificate in Unmanned Vehicle Systems

Graduated with CSE Department's Certificate in Unmanned Vehicle Systems, a multi-course track covering unmanned vehicle system theory and design (including UGVs and UASs/UAVs) as well as extensive study of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision.

Coursework: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Intro to Unmanned Vehicle Systems, Unmanned Vehicle Systems Design

Projects

Project AAPI - Penetration Testing Drone

UT Arlington Senior Design capstone project to create a drone that carries a penetration testing payload in the form of a Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux. The payload, controlled and communicated with via RF signals, identifies open Wireless Access Points, then scans the network behind the access point and exploits any vulnerabilities found.

  • Served as Team Leader, Scrum Master, and Communications Lead on a team of six total engineering students.
  • Sponsored by Elbit Systems of America (ESA) as well as the Department of Computer Science & Engineering.
  • Advised by Dr. Christopher McMurrough and ESA's Rick Plumer.

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Autonomous LEGO EV3 Robots

UT Arlington Autonomous Robots course team projects that I completed along with teammates Allison Gardiner and Noah Walker.

  • Robot 1, ”Solomon”, solved a painter's tape-demarcated maze with known configuration, starting point, and goal point using A* search with a Manhattan distance heuristic
  • Robot 2, ”Rehoboam”, using color and ultrasonic sensors, solved a similar maze with unknown initial position or maze configuration, with the goal of finding an object in the maze and pushing it out of position
  • Robots 3-6, "Babylon I, II, III, & IV", implemented the four behaviors of Braitenberg Vehicles.

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Skills

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