Ian W.

Aerospace engineering student at Craven Community College and NC State. I build rocket engines and 3D printers, and I'm working toward flying as a Naval Aviator through NROTC.

See my projects My story
Ian in a white shirt at night with city lights behind him

About

I grew up in a Navy family. My mom is an active-duty Master Chief, and my dad, grandfather, and uncle all retired as Senior Chiefs. I've lived in Florida, Italy, Japan, and North Carolina, and I've wanted to fly since I met the Blue Angels as a kid in Pensacola.

These days I'm a college freshman taking engineering classes through NC State's satellite campus in Havelock while living with my grandparents in Jacksonville, NC. I finished high school in three years and plan to transfer to NC State, join NROTC, and commission as a Naval Aviator.

Outside of class I build things: a paraffin hybrid rocket engine, a 5-axis 3D printer, and whatever comes next. I like mixing code and hardware, and lately I've been using PicoGK by LEAP 71 to generate parts in code and 3D print them.

Craven Community College · NC State satellite campus

Aerospace engineering, freshman · 20 credit hours this semester

2026 – present

Nile C. Kinnick High School · Yokosuka, Japan

Honors diploma in three years · AP Scholar · NHS · President's Award · 11 AP courses

Class of 2026

Projects

Hybrid rocket engine with injector and air feed line, viewed from above

Hybrid Rocket Engine

2025 – present

A paraffin-wax hybrid engine with a 304 stainless steel combustion chamber, built with the Kinnick aerospace club. It runs on paraffin and pressurized air and burns with a blue flame.

  • Sized the chamber wall using Lamé thick-wall equations and safety factors against the calculated chamber pressure.
  • Ran structural FEA and k-ω SST CFD in SimScale, and spent a lot of time fixing boundary conditions and meshes.
  • Wrote a Python script that takes chamber conditions and finds the best throat size for a bell nozzle.
  • Modeled the assembly in Fusion 360 and sized the compressed-air oxidizer system.
  • Bench-tested air, propane, and paraffin-kerosene fuel setups.
Kinnick aerospace club members in hard hats at the Ship Repair Facility

Kinnick Aerospace Club

2025 – 2026

Founder & President, Nile C. Kinnick High School.

  • Started the club after our school's Junior Science funding was cut during the government shutdown.
  • Grew it from 2 to 20 members with help from my physics teacher and engineers at the Ship Repair Facility.
  • Built the hybrid engine, toured SRF, and ran outreach at a local elementary school before handing it off to a younger member.
Two modified 3D printers on display at the science fair in front of the 5-axis FDM printer poster

5-Axis 3D Printer

2023

3rd place at the North Carolina State Science & Engineering Fair in Raleigh, built with my teammate Bode Blum.

  • Wrote conical slicing software so a standard 3-axis printer could use two extra rotary axes.
  • Handled the software-to-hardware side, turning generated geometry into machine motion.

  • Ultralight aircraft In progress

    My current build.

Experience

  1. May 2026 – Present

    Recreation Assistant / Lifeguard

    Morale, Welfare & Recreation (MWR) · Yokosuka, Japan

    Water safety, lifesaving response, and customer service at a busy facility. Helped coordinate a boat race between MWR and our AP Physics class.

  2. 2025 – 2026

    Teacher Assistant

    Sullivans Elementary School · Yokosuka, Japan

    Helped teach 2nd and 4th grade classes during the school week.

  3. 2024 – Present

    Construction Volunteer

    Appalachia Service Project · West Virginia / Tennessee

    Every year I join a crew repairing homes in under-resourced communities, including structural and flooded-crawlspace repairs.

Awards & Certifications

  • 20233rd place, NC State Science & Engineering Fair
  • 2026Honors diploma, AP Scholar, National Honor Society, President's Award
  • 2022NASA Space Camp, Huntsville, Alabama
  • 2026American Red Cross Lifeguard, First Aid & Bloodborne Pathogens (through 2028)

Skills

CAD / CAM
Fusion 360, AutoCAD, PicoGK, parametric modeling
Simulation
SimScale FEA & CFD, k-ω SST, stress analysis
Programming
Python, C# / Unity, Arduino, MATLAB, Git
Fabrication
CNC (G-code), 3D printing, woodworking, prototyping
Engineering
Propulsion, systems engineering, NDT / NDE
Languages
English (native), Mandarin (learning)

Get in touch

I'm always happy to talk about propulsion, aircraft, research, or internships.

Emailianwoolston2@gmail.com LinkedInIan Woolston GitHubHackerman128 RésuméDownload PDF