Alumni Directory

Alex Lopez

Sr. Mass Properties Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corporation

School Information

School: University of Kansas

College Major: Engineering

 Years at College Works: 2007 to 2008

Career Information

Working For: Northrop Grumman Corporation

Title: Sr. Mass Properties Engineer

Industry: Aerospace/Aviation

Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:

o Analysis of aircraft systems and structures. Completed weight and balance calculations on the components, assemblies, and installations, while verifying and validating practices and procedures through measurement techniques. o Tier 1 management and liaison. Providing oversite, holding suppliers accountable and adherence to program derived requirements. Review of technical submittals, validation of sound and ethical data. o Completion of multiple mass distributions on various aircraft using two different methods of analysis: Finite Element Model based as well as Panel-Wise distributions. o Operational Weight and Balance subject matter expert. Analyze and generation of mission performance plots in the form of CG excursions and fuel burns. o Mass properties technical lead on fuel calibration. This consisted of multiple phased testing, both on the aircraft as well as on aircraft representative fuel tank test fixtures. Through the process of managing the tank pitch and role attitudes, while onboarding and offloading testing liquid, measurements where recorded and processed to validate the 3-D fuel weight and moment tables, thus ensuring safety of flight. o Active team member and lead in development of program deliverables in line with major aircraft milestones: Calculated & Actual weight reports and creation of the Chart E. o Perform aircraft sizing and parametric analysis for advanced design programs. o Mass properties technical lead on the Digital Pathfinder program. Lead a small team of engineers building their knowledge, confidence, and capabilities in the field of mass properties engineering. Completion of mass and moment analysis of wing structures and subsystems. Derived plan-to-perform trends utilizing historical references to communicate the representative weight growth of EMD development.

What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?

Graduation as well holding the title of 3rd best aircraft designer in the world.

College Works Career Impact

How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?

After graduation: interviewing skills. From the first time you meet the potential customer at College Works Painting, you have to assume that you are going to walk out of there with the check. Applying to interviews, you have to be confident and knowledgeable in your skill set and know that they will be calling you back. Now: being confident enough to stand up to other engineers with 15+ years experience and flat-out telling them this will not work, nor is it ethical engineering practice.

What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?

Confidence overwhelms lack of knowledge – copyright

Advice

What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?

Have the passion to succeed. If you are just doing this on a whim, thinking you will make bank with little input. Get out of the room now, you’re not ready to commit 110% to something that will help you your entire career life. With that said, if you think that you are up to the challenge, be ready to work your tail off. Work hard, play harder.