Computer Engineering Student Completes First Co-op at SpaceX
Ruben Noroian, E’26, computer engineering, completed his first co-op experience as a software engineer at SpaceX working on Starlink’s antenna software.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cody Mello-Klein. Main photo: Ruben Noroian, a third-year computer engineering student at Northeastern, brought all the skills he’d learned at Northeastern to bear on his first co-op at SpaceX. Photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.
Co-op helps SpaceX’s Starlink satellites shoot for the stars
The Big Dipper has some stiff competition in the night sky these days. Private space technology company SpaceX has created its own constellation, an interlinked array of 8,500 Starlink satellites that is quickly filling up Low Earth Orbit.
Just this week, the company launched another 28 satellites that will join the so-called megaconstellation designed to bring reliable high-speed internet access to dark zones for terrestrial internet coverage. It’s one of the most significant space launch missions in recent history, one that a Northeastern University student has left his fingerprint on.
For his first co-op, Ruben Noroian spent an intense 12 weeks working as a software engineer at SpaceX. For a computer engineering student, working on Starlink’s antenna software was a dream come true that pushed his skills into the stratosphere.
“There are some interesting challenges with how you accurately and reliably communicate with people in remote areas using these satellites,” says Noroian. “I was working on the configuration that enables reliable communication and then ensuring that that communication can take place throughout the entire satellite’s lifespan to provide internet to users on the ground.”
Noroian’s summer sojourn to SpaceX’s offices in Redmond, Washington, was his first industry experience as a computer engineer. However, he brought with him extensive experience from Northeastern, including PEAK Fellowship-awarded work in the Silicon Synapse Lab and research done in the Northeastern University Computer Architecture Research Laboratory.
“Going into Northeastern, I didn’t have any engineering background,” Noroian says. “Purely everything that I learned to get to SpaceX was from here [Northeastern].”
Once he arrived at SpaceX, Noroian quickly embraced the high expectations placed on him. He was treated like just another engineer at SpaceX. Questions were welcome, and for Noroian, the opportunity to learn from experts at the top of their game was invaluable.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News