ESP Biography



MICHAEL CASE, MIT Grad student in System Design & Management




Major: SDM

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Michael Case

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Major in the United States Air Force with 14 years of experience as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Operator, Instructor, and Program Manager. Most recently completed 4 years at the Pentagon working on the integration and funding for the complete overhaul of the Air Force's nuclear weapons and communications systems. Currently enrolled in the MIT System Design and Management program pursuing a Master's in Engineering and Management, with foundational coursework focused on Systems Engineering, Systems Architecture, and Program Management. Previous academic experience includes a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2009) and a Master's of Science in Management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (2017).



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

E15508: "Lunar Lander" Design Challenge in Spark 2023 (Mar. 18 - 19, 2023)
Real life engineering design includes layers of complexity beyond always selecting the best engineering solutions. Speed to market and material costs are additional constraints levied on engineers. Through an upgraded twist on the classic egg drop challenge, students will compete in teams to build "lunar landers" from the limited material supply pool. The objective of the lander design is to keep the astronauts (eggs) safe, while optimizing the design versus tradeoffs in material cost and speed to deliver. Simulating real-life constraints in engineering design, students will be limited by a material budget, and must factor the pros and cons of material choices into their design. In an exploration of the project management triple constraint (cost, schedule, and performance), the best design must not only exceed the minimum system requirements, but maximize utility to NASA in terms of both cost and schedule.