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Cat Hannahs

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2019

  • University of Washington, Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, '21

  • Host Institution: SpaceX

  • Mentor: Chris Stott

Cat Hannahs is a junior at the University of Washington majoring in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering and minoring in Environmental Studies. Her love for aerospace engineering began when her dad took her to the STS-123 launch at Cape Canaveral for her ninth birthday. After that day, Cat went after every space and engineering opportunity, including attending Space Camp four times and going to academic summer camps on college campuses. In high school, she took evening classes in engineering and manufacturing, becoming the first girl to do so at her school district’s tech school. She was also an enthusiastic STEM Camp counselor and focused on inspiring younger girls to pursue engineering.

At the UW, Cat is an engaged member of the engineering community. Since her freshman year, Cat has been active in the Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion (SARP), a rocketry team that designs and constructs a sounding rocket for competition every year. She currently leads the Actuated Valves Project on the new liquid rocket and is responsible for overseeing design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing of the mechanisms and structural components of all valve bays. Previously, Cat performed research in the Autonomous Insect Robotics (AIR) Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department. At the AIR Lab, Cat worked on micromachined insect-inspired hopping robots which are designed with the intent of being extraterrestrial rovers.

Cat is extremely passionate about encouraging younger students to love STEM. As a member of the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, she has volunteered in Washington and Idaho to expose students to opportunities in STEM. She is also a presenter at the UW Planetarium where she gives shows to the public and grade school groups and is a member of UW Society of Women Engineers, where she is a mentor for underclasswomen.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Cat worked at SpaceX in Hawthorne, CA as a Vehicle Engineering Intern on Dragon 2 Primary Structures. She pursued design, manufacturing, and test engineering projects supporting Dragon 2’s capsule and trunk.

Cat will be interning at Blue Origin for Summer 2020 as a Manufacturing Engineering Intern for engine production.

Outside of all of these activities, Cat plays cello in the UW Philharmonia Orchestra and enjoys hiking, bouldering, birding, yoga, and tabletop and video games.