Abbott van Heerden is a junior studying electrical and computer engineering and applied mathematics at Vanderbilt University. In the Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Lab, he works on avionics and soil sensing payloads, with an emphasis on embedded systems and microcontroller-based design for data collection and flight operations. His interests center on aerospace systems, low-level hardware development, and engineering innovation and he hopes to pursue a career in the aerospace or chip design industry.