UMD Loop

05/12/2024

Today we’re highlighting Aiden Yeo (.yeo), who is graduating this spring with a degree in Mechanical Engineering! Aiden joined UMDLoop his freshman year of college during COVID as a Skeleton Team Member during our tunnel boring days. He later became the Hydraulics Team Lead, and for the past year has served as our President!

While he mainly focused on Loop at UMD, Aiden was also an intern at OrbitLogic where he worked on satellite mission scheduling software for NASA. This past summer he interned for SpaceX as a Launch Engineering Intern at one of the only places in the world that refurbishes spacecrafts for re-flight!

When asked about how UMDLoop impacted him he said, “I’ve had an amazing time on this team. It’s really one of those teams that your return on time invested is ridiculously high. I’ve met lifetime friends and mentors, survived a sandstorm, operated a custom 3000 psi hydraulic power unit, and helped develop a mars rover. I’m going to miss late nights with the team grinding out competition deliverables or fixing broken things (Murphy’s law is real). This team has given me room to test ideas and recover from mistakes. Without a doubt, this team has helped me get the internships and now job that I wanted.”

Aiden’s favorite memory from Loop is “... when we extended the hydraulic cylinders for the first time at competition. We’d been plagued by hydraulics and electrical issues all night. Including when a boring company engineer said our bleed procedures were insufficient, and Amir and I had to come up with a Jerry rigged method of bleeding the hoses. [...] What a night.”

This summer Aiden plans to travel to Europe with family and catch up with friends before flying out to Southern Cali to start full time at SpaceX! We wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors and can’t wait to see the big things you’ll do!

05/10/2024

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our graduates at this year’s senior sendoff! To all of our graduating seniors, thank you for all the hard work, dedication, and time you’ve put into this team, it wouldn’t have been the same without you. We wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors!

Stay tuned to learn more about each of our graduating seniors!