• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2022

• Cornell University, Mechanical Engineering, ‘24

• Host Institution: Airbus

• Executive Mentor: Tory Bruno

• Brookie Mentor: Emily Ku

Sophia Teng is a second-year pursuing a major in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science at Cornell University.

Sophia always enjoyed reading about space and the universe as a child, and throughout middle and high school Sophia was able to gain more knowledge as an engineer from her involvement in Odyssey of the Mind and as a captain of her school’s Science Olympiad team. It was there where Sophia realized her love for hands-on work and decided that she wanted to pursue a career in engineering.

At Cornell, Sophia is a member of the project team Cornell University Unmanned Air Systems (CUAir) on the Structures and Payloads team, which focuses on the internal components of the VTOL fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft. She is currently on the camera gimbal system and enjoys helping out with composite layups, test flights, and collaborating with the rest of the team! Additionally, Sophia is assisting Professor Xiaodong Cao with finding a Li-Yau-Hamilton type differential Harnack estimate for positive solutions of the FitzHigh-Nagumo equation, which was raised in the field of mathematical biology to model the transmission of electrical impulses. Sophia was also researcher with the Space Systems Design Studio on the Cislunar Explorers Research Team. The team's mission is to launch a pair of CubeSats into lunar orbit to demonstrate readiness of water elctrolysis propulsion technology and optical navigation.

Outside of her academic interests, Sophia is involved in Cornell Chinese Students Association as Treasurer. She loves helping organize events that promote Asian-American culture on campus, and creating a community where students can find lifelong friendships. Sophia also enjoys bullet journaling, boba, and cooking (poorly).

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Sophia is excited to join Airbus US Space and Defense as a 2022 summer engineering intern where she looks forward to learning and growing as an engineer, and gaining more experience working on an impactful project in the aerospace industry!