Hennessy Soto
Email: hs2412@princeton.edu
Education
B.S.E, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Princeton University, Class of 2027
Biography
Hennessy is a senior majoring in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, with a minor in Robotics. She is from Los Angeles, CA where she grew up frequently visiting the Space Shuttle Endeavor and models of the Mars Curiosity Rover at the California Science Center. It was exhibits like these that created a passion for aerospace. She would like to work on developing space vehicles used for exploration, focusing on the design aspect. Through different internship experiences and Princeton's Robotics Club, she has worked on designing and building UAVs, robots, and different electromechanical systems. Outside of academics, she enjoys practicing Taekwondo, crocheting, and reading.
Research
Hennessy is working on altering the design of a caterpillar inspired soft crawling robot. The current iteration of the robot is limited to operation in a controlled lab setting and lacks modularity. This projects involves redesigning the electrical system of the robot such that every component is on board, allowing untethered operation and control. The process involves designing micro circuit boards. The second part of the project involves designing an attachment mechanism so robot segments can latch or unlatch during missions, creating a modular design. The goal is to redesign the robot such that it may be deployed and applied to real missions like search and rescue or surveillance.