Katie Bishop
Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020
Georgia Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering, ‘22
Host Institution: Virgin Galactic
Mentor: Kathy Laurini
Katie Bishop is a second-year at the Georgia Institute of Technology studying Electrical Engineering and minoring in business. Looking up at the stars whilst camping when she was young was nothing short of exhilarating for Katie who soon fell in love with space. It was both the little moments like being outside, building things with her father and loving trips to Home Depot workshops together; as well as the big defining moments like taking AP Physics which was the first class that truly challenged Katie that really solidified her desire to do engineering. She chose Electrical Engineering in particular which would allow her to pursue many different career opportunities.
During the summer after her first year, Katie interned with Boeing as a systems engineer supporting the Chinook program. She worked with EASA and Boeing’s customers to document airworthiness certification requirements for customer-specific H-47 Extended Range configuration and worked to resolve cross-functional technical issues, and analyze requirements data to ensure safety, reliability, maintainability, testability, & system security.
As a Georgia Tech student, Katie is deeply passionate about her involvement with the Society of Women Engineers has served in various leadership positions since her freshman year, and currently serves as the VP of Administration. She also enjoys instructing her peers at the Hive, a makerspace for all students with an electrical engineering focus. Additionally, she was involved with Georgia Tech’s Undergraduate Student Launch Initiative team on the avionics subteam whose goal is the development of a rocket-propelled vehicle and scientific payload, subject to the approval and review process of NASA.
Katie ran a FIRST Robotics camp this past summer and loves to do any sort of STEM outreach she can while she is at school. She is extremely passionate about STEM outreach especially for middle schoolers because she truly believes this is when most kids begin to believe they can’t do STEM, even when anyone can!
Besides her love for space, Katie enjoys the outdoors, cooking, traveling, working out, and cheering on her beloved yellow jackets, her school’s mascot, at any sporting event. She had the opportunity to live & study at Georgia Tech’s campus in France spring of 2020.
As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Katie interned with Virgin Galactic on the payload and interior operations team. She worked on a wide range of projects include work for designing a payload foothold for SS2, supporting the payload team in their customer relations & payload flight preparation, streamlining payload documentation, verifying & writing concept of operations for various emergency equipment, & working on electrical diagrams for the cabin mockup.
For fall 2020, Katie will be interning at Blue Origin on the extreme engine testing team in Van Horn, Texas.