• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2023

• University of California - Berkeley, Computer Science and Cognitive Science, ‘24

• Host Institution: SpaceX

• Mentor: Laurie Abadie

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Hannah Joo is a junior at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a double major in Computer Science and Cognitive Science. She grew up in Seoul, South Korea amidst intermittently studying in China, Canada, Wisconsin, California, and Spain.

Hannah hadn’t always had her sights set on aerospace—living in different countries from a young age sparked her interest in and compassion for the human condition, which she pursued through creative writing, psychology, medicine, and international relations. In her senior year of high school, she joined their FIRST Robotics team upon her good friend Shyla's suggestion, upon which she became fascinated by the enigma and art of breathing life and logic into metal. In working with aspiring aerospace engineers with their sights on the skies, she came to learn the implications of furthering space exploration for humanity and the feasibility of chasing the skies and stars that she’d admired through plane windows for as long as she could remember.

As a first-generation college student curious about the mysteries within and beyond humanity, Hannah took classes in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy alongside her technical coursework in mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. In her freshman year, she joined her university’s rocketry team, where she built hands-on skills in all subteams across the spectrum of hardware and software, converging on avionics. In the following summer, she was elected onto one of three positions on the executive board, thereafter leading flight reliability and operations for the team. That year, she and her ambitious peers launched Berkeley's first liquid bipropellant rocket to ~11,000 ft, launched the world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket to ~8,000 ft, and successfully static fired their PID-controlled electronic regulator system. Outside of late nights on rocketry, she helped teach data structures and programming as an academic intern with her university's EECS department.

Hannah’s interest in robotics and mission operations solidified when she interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the summer after her sophomore year, where she worked with the Mission Control Systems team in developing the Deep Space Network’s telemetry relay monitoring software, ultimately enhancing the reliability of downlink dataflow. During the school year, Hannah continues to intern part-time on NASA missions at her university’s Space Sciences Laboratory, where she develops ground software and tests avionics hardware for GLIDE, a heliophysics satellite launching in 2025. She also conducts research in cognitive science-inspired robotic learning at her university’s Hybrid Systems Laboratory.

While chasing the stars herself, Hannah is passionate about bringing the stars closer to the ground for the next generation, especially to those of underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds. She leads outreach for her rocketry team, organizing presentations and technical mentorship with Bay Area high schools lacking STEM support. Additionally, she continues to be involved with FIRST as a volunteer for Silicon Valley Regional. At JPL, she collaborated with Dr. Rebbapragada, a published machine learning researcher, to deliver presentations and interactive activities on artificial intelligence to young girls in Pasadena. Outside of engineering, she pursued her passions for education equity and language as an instructor and writer on the global leadership team for TASSEL Cambodia, through which she taught English to dozens of rural Cambodian children affected by the Khmer Rouge genocide and brought international awareness to their stories.

Outside of academics, work, and outreach, Hannah loves traveling and being outdoors whenever she can. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, climbing, volleyball, street photography, and cooking. She also aims to obtain her pilot’s license upon graduation.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Hannah is thrilled to be working at SpaceX this summer as a Starlink engineering intern in Hawthorne, CA.