Charlie Steinman — Alexandria, VA
I like building things that didn't exist before I started.
I'm a mechanical engineering student at Virginia Tech finishing an accelerated master's program with a focus on metal additive manufacturing — specifically laser powder bed fusion and the thermal history of parts.
Outside of coursework, I swam competitively for VT's club team, hike regularly, and have a long-standing interest in cars — a day at the BMW M Performance Driving School remains one of my favorite memories.
In the summers between semesters I've had the chance to do that for real — nine concrete counterweight concepts at Caterpillar for a new Small Wheel Loader, component design for four Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series cars (5, 9, 24, and 48), and two summers in Northrop Grumman's cleanrooms assembling the Cygnus ISS resupply spacecraft. Each internship pushed me to work within real limits — tolerances, constraints, budget — instead of the forgiving scope of a class project.
Long-term I'm interested in how additive manufacturing changes what's actually possible to build: topology-optimized structures, functional grading of alloy combinations, and geometry that couldn't be previously achieved.
