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I'm José Vargas,
an Aerospace
& Computer
Engineering student at
the University of Michigan

About Me

I'm always looking for new challenges.

Profile

I am a 22 year-old engineering student from Manaus, Brazil, a big city in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. As a senior double-majoring in Aerospace and Computer Engineering, I am curious about how technology can help to improve life on Earth and beyond. During my time at the University of Michigan, I am getting involved with research to develop safer systems for aerospace vehicles, and harnessing the power of quantum computers to solve CFD problems. As part of Michigan Aeronautical Science Association, I have designed rocket fins, contributed to the rocket flight prediction software and wrote firmware for the flight computer radio. I intern as a software engineer at AWS and Microsoft Azure. Passionate about culture and languages, I have studied abroad in Japan and lived, virtually due to the pandemic, in the Max Kade Haus, a German-speaking community at the University of Michigan.

Career

Michigan Aeronautical Science Association Aerodynamics, Software and Avionics Engineer
August 2019 - Present

As an aerodynamics engineer, I designed a sheet metal rocket fin prototype capable of enduring flutter at hypersonic speeds by conducting two-way Fluid-Structure Interaction simulation on Ansys. As a software developer, I contributed to our 6DOF flight prediciton software by introducing disperion analysis for Monte Carlo simulations, integrating trajectory plots with Google Earth and building a GUI interface for general rocket shapes. As an avionics engineer, I am currently writing the firmware library for the flight computer radio.

Verified Aerospace Systems Lab Research Assistant
January 2021 - Present

I work with Professor Jean-Baptiste Jeannin to develop a synchronous programming language with refinement types support. This research focuses on creating an environment where the source program can be directly verified. My main contribution was to modify the Zelus Language compiler to support refinement type annotation and to create an interface with Z3 SMT solver to check wether or not type declaration for functions and variables are valid. This project was recognized with the U-M STEM Research Carreer Award.

Microsoft Sentinel (Could & AI) Software Engineering Intern
June 2022 - August 2022

I developed an incident-response system to help security analysts investigate compromise machines in a large scale. The work was a collaboration between Microsoft Sentinel and the Microsoft Security Response Center. I also designed the user interface using Typescript and React. During this internship, my team won 2nd place in the internal Capture The Flag event and 3rd place on the intern puzzle solving event.

Microsoft Windows Kernel Software Engineering Intern
June 2023 - August 2023

I worked on the Windows Kernel and Hypervisor Test Suite at the Base Platform Team. My project focused on optimizing VM creating and required working on user, kernel, and hypervisor modes on Windows. The project was developed in C, C++ and Assembly x86.

Amazon Web Services Software Development Engineer
June 2021 - August 2021

I introduced new customer-facing metrics for the Global Accelerator service. One set of metrics display the health status of EC2 instances, elatic IPs and load balancers linked to the accelerators. The other set displays TCP reset counts on upstream and downstream connections. This product was launched on October 2021, read more about it here.

Environmental Spatial Analysis Research Assistant
August 2019 - December 2020

I performed the digitization of 25 farms in Puerto Rico using ArcGIS and Google Earth to detect coffee crop management. I analyzed farm shapefiles on Google Earth Engine using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index to track crop recovery after Hurricane Maria. I wrote a script to detect potentially damaged areas in farms based on multispectral imagery. This project received the Blue Ribbon Award at the University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Symposium Winter 2020.

Academics

I challenge myself by exploring different engineering areas.

From Aerospace to Computer Science, Engineering to German, first-year to master's classes. I believe that exploring different areas is key to solve complex problems and become a better engineer. Here I list the classes I have taken.

  • Aerospace Engineering
    • AEROSP 623: Computational Fluid Dynamics II
    • AEROSP 550: Linear Systems Theory
    • AEROSP 523: Computational Fluid Dynamics I
    • AEROSP 490: Reserach in Programming Language Design for Aerospace Systems
    • AEROSP 483: Space System Design
    • AEROSP 350: Fundamentals of Aerospace Computing
    • AEROSP 343: Spacecraft Dynamics
    • AEROSP 335: Aircraft and Spacecraft Propulsion
    • AEROSP 325: Aerodynamics
    • AEROSP 315: Aircraft and Spacecraft Structures
    • AEROSP 305: Aerospace Engineering Laboratory I
    • AEROSP 288: Fundamentals of Product Development (MBSE)
    • AEROSP 285: Introduction to Aerospace Enterprise
    • AEROSP 225: Introduction to Gas Dynamics
    • AEROSP 215: Introduction to Solid Mechanics and Aerospace Structures
    • AEROSP 205: Introduction to Aerospace Engineering Systems
    • AEROSP 201: Introduction to Aerospace Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
    • EECS 590: Advanced Programming Languages
    • EECS 560: Linear Systems Theory
    • EECS 483: Compiler Construction
    • EECS 473: Advanced Embedded Systems
    • EECS 388: Introduction to Computer Security
    • EECS 373: Introduction to Embedded System Design
    • EECS 370: Introduction to Computer Organization
    • EECS 281: Data Structures and Algorithms
    • EECS 280: Programming and Introductory Data Structures
    • EECS 270: Introduction to Logic Design
    • EECS 215: Introduction to Electronic Circuits
    • EECS 203: Discrete Mathematics
  • Mechanical Engineering
    • MECHENG 240. Introduction to Dynamics and Vibrations
  • Engineering and Technical Communication
    • TCHNCLCM 300: Technical Communication for Electrical and Computer Science
    • ENGR 430: Engineering Honors Seminar III
    • ENGR 330: Engineering Honors Seminar II
    • ENGR 280: Undergraduate Research in Farm Spatial Analysis
    • ENGR 230: Engineering Honors Seminar I
    • ENGR 101: Introduction to Computers and Programming
    • ENGR 100: Introduction to Engineering
  • Sciences
    • MATH 216: Differential Equations
    • MATH 215: Multivariable Calculus
    • PHYSICS 261: Honors E&M Lab
    • PHYSICS 240: General Physics II - Electromagnetism
    • PHYSICS 141: General Physics I Lab
    • PHYSICS 140: General Physics I - Mechanics
    • CHEM 130: General Chemistry - Macroscopic Investigations and Reaction Principles
    • CHEM 125/126: General Chemistry Lab I & II
  • Intellectual Breadth
    • ASIANLAN 325: 3rd Year Japanese I
    • ASIANLAN 226: 2nd Year Japanese II
    • ASIANLAN 225: 2nd Year Japanese I
    • GERMAN 312: Geographic Immersion
    • GERMAN 310: Studies in German Culture - Berlin
    • WRITING 305: MWrite Writing Fellows
    • PIANO 150: Piano Performance

Portfolio

A selection of recent projects I have worked on.

Design and Manufacturing

Rocket Fins

Project Link

Performed structural and fluid analysis to design the rocket fins for the Tangerine Space Machine rocket.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Driven-Cavity Flow

Driven-Cavity Flow Streamlines for N = 128 and Re = 500, inspired by Ghia et al (1982).

Programming Languages and Robotics

MARVeLus: Method for Automated Refinement and Verification of Lustre

Project Link

MARVeLus bridges the gap between simulation, execution and verification.

Remote Sensing

Low Vegetation Density Detection Algorithm

Project Link

The detection algorithm enabled the NDVI analysis in Puerto Rican coffee farms after Hurricane Maria. Mayorga et al

Cybersecurity

Drone Cyber-resilience and Cyber-hardness

Interfaced a Raspberry Pi with a Lumenier Flight Controller to strengthen the security of a Vayu Knuclebuster Drone.

Software Development

Compiler for a Python-like Language

Garter is a scary snake language that supports exceptions. This was part of EECS 483 Fall 22 course at UMich.