Timeline

Inspired by SN5 hopping first try and Joe Barnard, I found it awful that there's 0 opportunity for bright young people to work on self-landing rockets. We're awarding $15k - $50k prizes to student rocketry teams who throttle, hover & hop substantial liquid/hybrid rockets. We're trying to build a robust talent pipeline to ubiquitize self-landing rockets. The challenge is a 501c3 nonprofit.

Myself & Colm Broderick toured the east coast for about a month in July 2022 playing Irish music. We had a great time! Learned that setting up a tour (and getting Colm a visa) is way more work than it sounds.

I thought it'd be great to get good at standup for the June music tour. I watched two MasterClasses, did some 1-on-1s, practiced & took a 4 week comedy class in Atlanta. I was so bad, the instructor asked me not to perform at the final recital. This story was the best joke in our set...

Founded a nonprofit Irish arts program with my Mom in Atlanta. Moved on to focus on more ambitious efforts, but I continue to advise, teach & help out on occasion. Under Phoenix Irish Arts is also the annual IrishFest Atlanta.

Co-founded with Maanit Madan, we tried to build Cameo but for helpful feedback. Users could send quick media to a world expert to get fast personalized feedback. We had ~100 paying users, but decided to move on to things we were more excited about.

Worked on Starship in Boca Chica from around SN4 to SN12. Owned the manufacturing line for tank dome panels, vehicle ballast & tank access doors, among other things. Decided to stop being an engineer because I want to found/build a SpaceX, not work at one, but I learned a ton. Watching SN5 hop was incredible!

Georgia Tech's liquid propellant rocketry team. I worked on the propellant feed system for the Subscale launch vehicle & YJ-1R engine, a regeneratively-cooled 800lbf kerolox engine. I try to help out/advice the team whenever possible.

Studied Irish music & language in Limerick, but got cut short as COVID began. This was really just an excuse to play music more seriously and plan out a music tour, that COVID delayed until 2022 unfortunately.

Praan is building technologies that remove particulate matter and greenhouse gases directly from the atmosphere. Founded in 2017 by my friend Angad Daryani, I helped build early prototypes, and co-invented US patent no. US20210299678A1.

GT Motorsports is Georgia Tech's Formula SAE team, and builds a formula-style internal combustion race car every year. I primarily worked on aerdynamics & CFD, designed wings, under trays and cooling side pods. Learned a lot about deep diving in extremely technical areas.

While at DuPont in Delaware, my legs and hands began feeling strange. After 4 separate doctors misdiagnosed me, we concluded I had some sort of neuropathy. I was in & out of the hospital for ~8 months and thought I had ALS, as a family member had died from it. For around 2 months, I believed I had only a few months/years to live - learned a lot about life & myself! Turned out to be Chronic Inflammatory Demylenating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), and with the right balance of drugs, I'm stable & can walk ok, but can't run/jump/play soccer anymore. To my knowledge, it looks like 90% of the research is just about improving quality of life, not actually understanding/curing - I'm  interested in hearing from knowledgable folks!

Worked in the Chemical Mechanical Planarization division. I essentially did no real work, and had my mind blown by how impossible it was to make anything happen. Once got reprimanded for walking with only one backpack strap on, and not using the handrail while going up some stairs.

Received the Gold Scholarship- awarded to the top 100 applicants in each freshman class. I maintained a 4.0 GPA for 3 years, until I realized I wasn't learning anything in classes and dropped out in 2022 to do better things. I think school kills creative people, and do not want to have a "degree" to show I know things.

I won 1st place in the 15-18 Fiddle Slow Aires competition at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Ennis, County Clare, 2017. I also lead the Atlanta Junior Céilí Band to win the national championships and compete at the world championships.

I won 1st place in the 15-18 Fiddle competition at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Ennis, County Clare, 2016. Few people win from outside of Ireland, and I had the disadvantage of learning exclusively over Skype from my teacher Oisín Mac Diarmada. This was a really important moment for me, as I internalized that I could do anything.

Built cool robots! I increased funding by 500% in a single year, and nobody died under my safety watch. I also helped to lead the team, historically low-ranked, to finish in the top 2% of teams globally as division quarterfinalists at the world championships in 2017 & 2018. I mentor the team occasionally, and enjoy coaching promising students.

International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Atlanta. Played varsity soccer & was JV soccer captain, but mostly bench warmed & spent my time on the robotics team. During this time I won 1st place in ~30 national music competitions, did some graphic design work for Irishfest Atlanta & a charity CD (I sucked), worked at a bicycle shop, and did some bullshit "internships". Also learned Spanish and some Chinese. I got in trouble a lot, and many of my teachers strongly disliked me.