# Saim Hasan > Throttle RE & GNC Engineer @ USC LPL | Prev. Intern @ Abbott HF | B.S. + M.S. Mechanical Engineering @ USC Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/saim Pursuing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Dynamics and Control at the University of Southern California. Throttle Responsible Engineer at the USC Liquid Propulsion Laboratory, leading throttle dynamics characterization and closed-loop thrust control development for a 3 kN LOX-kerosene rocket engine. First-principles thinker motivated by deep curiosity and committed to advancing humanity through the future of engineering. ## Work Experience ### Throttle Responsible Engineer @ USC Liquid Propulsion Laboratory (LPL) Jan 2025 – Present • Led characterization of throttle dynamics for a 3 kN liquid oxygen (LOX)-kerosene rocket engine for a hopper flight vehicle. • Advanced the modeling approach from white-box differential equations and Simulink model to grey-box system identification using cold-flow and hotfire open-loop data to capture the nonlinear, time-delayed, and highly coupled dynamic system behavior. • Evaluated control strategies, including PID and full state-feedback; developing a closed-loop thrust controller that maps commanded thrust to chamber pressure and propellant mass-flow targets from pressure transducer and thermocouple feedback. • Executed cold-flow tests with deionized water and liquid nitrogen to validate throttle hardware and characterize time delays, transient response, and steady-state mass flows; led 2 hot-fire campaigns testing open-loop throttle sequences guided by cold-flow mixture ratio calculations to quantify thrust, chamber pressure, and mass-flow throttled response. • Engineered and iterated complete throttle system hardware assembly, including a stepper-motor-to-V-port ball valve throttle coupler, hardstops, and mount in Siemens NX, designed for aluminum 3-axis CNC manufacturability and assembly. • Assembled and validated the throttle actuation system electronics, including soldered microcontroller and voltage level shifter electronics, troubleshooting and testing using a waveform generator and oscilloscope to ensure reliable motor actuation. ### Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) Engineer @ USC Liquid Propulsion Laboratory (LPL) Jan 2025 – Present • Engineering thrust vector control (TVC), reaction control system (RCS) roll control, and throttle systems for a hopper flight vehicle competing in the Collegiate Propulsive Lander Challenge. ### Technical Resources Chair @ MEDesign Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 • Coordinated and delivered technical workshops for MEDesign teams and recruited subject-matter experts to support projects. ### Medical Device Engineer - SalivAid @ MEDesign Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California • Engineered and prototyped a wearable peristaltic pump device for mobile saliva management in sialorrhea patients based on clinician feedback, presenting the design at the MEDesign Symposium to 50+ students, faculty, and medical professionals. ### Heart Failure Division, Manufacturing Engineering @ Abbott Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | Pleasanton, CA • Spearheaded cross-functional collaboration to design and iteratively prototype a case applicator fixture for the next-generation HeartMate Touch™ Communication System, addressing urgent ergonomic concerns and enabling punctual design transfer. • Directed qualification of 50+ fixtures for the HeartMate 3™ Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) pump lock testing by authoring installation qualification documentation; initiated wear-rate inspection protocols to extend fixture lifecycle. • Led development of 4 Value Stream Maps (VSMs) of service depot processes to document current state, identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and quantify non-value-added time, driving workflow improvements with $30K potential annual savings. ### Undergraduate Researcher @ Dynamic Robotics and Control Laboratory Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California • Developed and tested a linear Kalman Filter in Python to fuse noisy inertial measurement unit (IMU) and computer vision data in MuJoCo physics simulation to improve bipedal robot state estimation, validating accuracy via covariance and RMSE analysis. ### Suspension Engineer @ USC Racing - Formula SAE Team Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California • Led the redesign of the method for measuring racecar center of gravity height, revising test procedures to improve accuracy and data repeatability; authored and delivered an engineering report documenting methodology and results. ### Vehicle Simulation Engineer @ USC Racing - Formula SAE Team Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California • Modeled quarter-car vertical suspension dynamics in MATLAB to analyze suspension responses to varied road inputs. ### Undergraduate Research Fellow @ Safe and Intelligent Autonomy Lab Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA • Programmed Python scripts using ROS2 to generate randomized trajectories for TurtleBot4 and collect real-world dynamics data, advancing the lab’s reachability analysis framework for safe trajectory planning. Presented research at the Viterbi Undergraduate Symposium to 200+ peers and faculty. ### Mechanical Lead @ FRC Robotics Team 1280 Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | Danville, CA • Led the end-to-end mechanical engineering of the 2023 competition robot, managing a team of 11 through design, prototyping, fabrication, and assembly, while addressing staffing and budget constraints to ensure timely delivery and optimized performance. • Prototyped and evaluated several 3D-printed intake mechanism prototypes, ultimately selecting and designing a pneumatically driven claw system; implemented encoder-feedback open-loop motor control operations to automate seven game performance-optimal robotic arm movements. ## Education ### Master of Science - MS in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering USC Viterbi School of Engineering ### Bachelor of Science - BS in Mechanical Engineering USC Viterbi School of Engineering ### High School Diploma in Highest Honors San Ramon Valley High School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/saimhasan --- Source: https://flows.cv/saim JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/saim/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-10