Portrait of Alexander Tong
Engineering Portfolio

Hi! I’m Alex.

I’m a mechanical engineering student at Boston University with a focus in structures and spaceflight hardware. I co-lead BURPG’s separation and recovery work and lead its aerodynamic downcomer fairing development, alongside my professional experience in research fixtures, manufacturing, and vacuum systems.

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Boston University Rocket Propulsion Group

Flight Hardware

Argo Bipropellant Flight Vehicle

Argo / Side profile schematic
Argo flight vehicle and highlighted contributions Side profile labeled from nose to engine: Separation and Recovery Bay, Avionics Bay, Upper Tank, Intertank, Lower Tank, and Engine. The downcomer runs along the lower tank under a streamlined aerodynamic fairing. Red highlights mark the recovery nose, hoist rings, front bulkhead, and downcomer fairing. The fairing is a schematic outline, not a finalized CAD profile. SEPARATION & RECOVERY BAY AVIONICS BAY UPPER TANK INTERTANK LOWER TANK DOWNCOMER FAIRING DOWNCOMER ENGINE FIN ASSEMBLY MY CONTRIBUTIONS Argo vertical side-profile schematic Nose at top, engine at bottom. Red highlights mark my recovery-bay, hoist-ring, bulkhead, and downcomer-fairing contributions. The fairing is shown schematically. Separation &Recovery Bay AvionicsBay Upper Tank Intertank Lower Tank Downcomer Downcomer Fairing Fin Assembly Engine My Contributions
Argo recovery deployment layout with the rocket, main parachute, and drogue parachute
In progress

Separation and Recovery Subsystem

Sized recovery lines for a 1,230 lbf snatch load; the earlier black-powder configuration was 18.7 lbm within a 20 lbm allocation. Led the second integrated test.

Recovery Systems · Load Analysis · Testing

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Pictures/CO2/Manufactured-Piercer-Card.webp
Chamber tested · full-system test planned

CO₂ Deployment Mechanism

Designed and machined CO₂ piercers with a three-person team; completed a reduced-pressure component firing. Integrated testing is pending.

Fusion 360 · Stress Analysis · Machining · Testing

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Pictures/Aerocover/Profile-Trade-Thumbnail.svg
In progress

Aerodynamic Downcomer Fairing

Led three fairing concepts, aerodynamic/thermal screening, and the CoDR; the Icarus baseline/backup-candidate simulation in Ansys CFD is converged and under review.

Ansys CFD converged and under review · Supersonic Trades · Planned Adjoint Optimization

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Ground Systems & Testing

Pictures/Vacuum/Port-Valve-Side.webp
Operational · 0.011 atm demonstrated

Vacuum Test Chamber

Designed the installed 6061-T6 door, tube adapter, and seal for a 352 L chamber; operated it at 0.011 atm.

Vacuum Systems · Plate Analysis · Seal Design · Test Operations

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Pictures/Nozzle/Hotfire-Thumbnail.webp
Hotfire tested

Hybrid Rocket Nozzle

Reduced nozzle mass 73% from my initial design; the printed nozzle survived an approximately two-second hotfire.

SolidWorks · Nozzle Design · Hotfire Testing

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Pictures/VEGAS/Assembly.png Design work complete; not assembled VEGAS Fire Suppression Planned mounting, fabrication, and pipe routing for a CO₂ fire-suppression system. SolidWorks · Mounting Design · Pipe Routing Show detailsHide details

February–May 2025 · BURPG

Developed assembly and mounting designs in SolidWorks for an existing suppression-system concept, including 3D-printed adapters, mounting hardware, and sheet-metal fixtures for the VEGAS stand.

  • Planned fabrication and pipe routing with pipe-bending guidance.
  • Worked from previously established component selections and assembly sequence.
  • The 0.23 kg/s design flow, 1,070 PSI pressure value, and spreadsheet yield factor of safety of 4 were inherited design inputs.
  • The system was never assembled; the club redirected available funds and parts to the flight vehicle.

Professional Experience & Research

BU Plummer Laboratory

Mechanical Design Assistant · June 2026–Present

  • Designed and executed 48 Instron tests across four bistable physical Ising models, producing the lab's first direct force dataset for future empirical coupling analysis.
  • CNC-machined a shaker adapter held to ±0.005 in; reduced estimated plate-and-bolt cost from $1,170 outsourced to $71.11 in-house.
  • Built modular camera and hydrogel-test apparatus for ongoing research.

Culturon

Mechanical Engineering Intern · February–June 2026

  • Designed adhesive-free sample racks in Onshape and ran full-scale nanoparticle deposition mapping.
  • Used SEM/ImageJ and optical microscopy to characterize deposition patterns and present contamination-prevention concepts to technical leads.
  • Experimental work and component-level design; public details limited by NDA.

Ablative Pulsed Plasma Thruster

Volunteer · University of Sydney · Sydney, Australia · May–June 2026

Designed an ABS inductor spool, performed coil-winding calculations, checked outgassing suitability, and provided limited support using the established operating procedure.

BU Space Physics & Technology Lab (SPTL)

Research Experience · October–December 2025

Analyzed COSSMo instrument data with Python and pySPEDAS; assisted with flight-spare laser calibration and observed the CDF data-product workflow.

Additional Projects