Mechanical and aerospace engineering students Faraz Awan, Candace Do and Sydney Hsu have been selected as 2023 Matthew Isakowitz Fellows. The Isakowitz Program is a highly selective national fellowship for aerospace engineering students with an interest in commercial spaceflight.
Now in its sixth year, the Isakowitz Program provides 30 exceptional students pursuing aerospace careers with paid internships at cutting-edge commercial space companies. Fellows also receive one-on-one mentorship from accomplished members of the space community, including astronauts, engineers, entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and others. More than 250 students from 90 colleges applied for the fellowship this year.
Faraz Awan is a junior at Princeton studying mechanical and aerospace engineering. He is a Gates Scholar, QuestBridge Match Scholar, and a Zed Factor Fellow. Driven by a passion for service, Faraz wants to build space technologies that address pressing global issues such as climate change and sustainable development. He is also interested in the advancement of renewable space exploration vehicles. At Princeton, he works at the University Makerspace and is a founder of Muslim Engineers for Social Impact and Justice (MESIJ). He is also pursuing certificates in computer science and robotics and intelligent systems. His host company for the Isakowitz Fellowship will be Millennium Space Systems.
Candace Do is a junior at Princeton studying mechanical and aerospace engineering. On campus, she has done research in the Space Physics Lab on ion beam calibration and in the Intelligent Robot Motion Lab on monocular depth estimation methods, and is looking forward to joining the TigerSats Lab next semester to work on nanosatellites. She is also pursuing certificates in computer science and robotics and intelligent systems. She is passionate about designing and building next-gen space infrastructure to enable the exploration of the solar system and beyond. Her host company for the Isakowitz Fellowship will be Rocket Lab.
Sydney Hsu earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton in 2022, and is now a first-year master’s student in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford. Her primary interests are in space vehicle design, deployable systems, and human factors. At Princeton she captained the rugby team, helped build a potable water system in Peru with Engineers Without Borders, and completed a senior thesis on the design of a deployable origami aeroshell system for CubeSat de-orbit and re-entry. Through bridging engineering, policy, and diplomacy, she aspires to advance human spaceflight to the Moon and beyond while expanding access to the benefits of space around the world. Her host company of the Isakowitz Fellowship will be SpaceX.
Read more about the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Class of 2023.