Alexander Salazar

Alexander Salazar, an alumnus of the master’s in System Engineering and Design (SED) is now an engineer at Blue Origin, a privately funded American company building Space Rockets and a Space Station.

“The SED master’s really stood out to me,” Salazar said. “The emphasis on integrative practices and the flexibility to customize my courses is what interested me the most. In SED, you are free to explore and roam in whatever interests you. There are so many different views in a classroom.”

A complex system engineering background

In SED students are educated to understand the dimensions of complexity when designing an engineering systems. Complex systems include a myriad of individual components; for example, a car has about 30 thousand components, an airplane about six million and a space shuttle about three million.

Salazar recives a BSE degree in aerospace which helped him land his first professional engineering job at Atlas Copco in New Hudson, Mich., as a Design Engineer / Project Engineer. In the automotive field, he designed self-pierce riveting systems to function with large payload robots that make joints on different materials; designed, tested and validated C-Frame parts made from steel using SolidEdge and ANSYS to meet customer’s structural and functional requirements; and collaborated with the manufacturing engineering and operations team on design reviews, which focused on design optimization for safety and manufacturability.

“Earning a U-M degree helped me a lot through the job interview process,” Salazar said. “Recruiters would tell me you went to an amazing school. U-M gave me an upper edge over other candidates because of the university’s reputation.”

A 21st century engineer

Salazar’s passion for space is associated with his childhood when he was fascinated by the History Channel series while attending middle school in Miami, Fla., a few years after moving from his birth town of Lima, Peru. 

“I loved watching ‘The Universe‘ and learning more about the mysteries of space,” said Salazar. “I enjoyed learning about space and what we may be doing in the future. We’re taking people to space now so space exploration has always been very exciting to me.”

Salazar continued to fuel his passion for engineering through FLAME, a joint program between Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Florida International University. The program is designed for minority high school students interested in engineering and exposes them to a challenging curriculum focused on real-world applications and project-based learning.

Later in high school, he learned about CAD (Computer Aided Design). Those lessons continue to benefit him today. 

“I use CAD even now in my education and my professional career,” he said. “It helps me visualize my thoughts and ideas, which then are turned into reality. CAD helps me take projects from concept through the life cycle.”

This knowledge combined with systems engineering specific simulators such as STAR- CCM, allowed him to design the NACA 2412 airfoil using CATIA and by running STAR-CCM simulations from angle of attacks ranging from 0 to 25 degrees comparing lift, drag, and pitching moment to the Eppler 422 airfoil.

“I learned a lot in my engineering education and my professional career,” said Salazar. “I learned when you make a mistake, own it. Don’t make excuses. Learn from your mistakes. Improve from your mistakes, help others learn the ropes, and be a better engineer. Now I will help others be better engineers.”