Joshua Kraus
Lehigh University Aerospace Engineering and Human Psychology
Joshua Kraus
Lehigh University Aerospace Engineering and Human Psychology
About me and this portfolio page
Who am I?
I am a rising junior at Lehigh University and I really love to build. I’m a part of the Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts, and Sciences program (IDEAS). This program at Lehigh is part of the honors intercollegiate group. We develop an engineering and arts and science concentration in tandem, with the goal of becoming deeply interdisciplinary. Through the IDEAS program, I’m pursuing a B.S. in Integrated Engineering and Social Science. Specifically, this translates to a study of aerospace engineering and human behavioral psychology. To me, engineering is at its core, a human experience. We are all builders, and we all build for each other. I study both aerospace and human psychology to embrace the interconnectedness of flight and the human spirit.
I'm lucky to be a part of the Lehigh community, and you’ll see me here with more roles than just 'student'. I serve as a head teaching assistant for an applied computer engineering class, a student mentor for the first-year engineering experience, an undergraduate researcher, and a payload engineer with the Lehigh rocketry team.
I'm a big fan of learning new skills, and I have a few formats that I think are the best. First is YouTube. While nothing beats learning by physically doing, YouTube is a highly immersive learning experience for an engineer. Channels like BPS.Space, Real Engineering, Mustard, NileRed, The Space Race, DIY Perks, Astrum, 3Blue1Brown, and Mayday are among favorites. When I’m trying to learn code libraries or operating systems, I use GitHub and '.org' repositories. People put extensive work into building these rich repositories, and often detail their development well, but dont put this on YouTube. Yet, not every repository is perfectly documented, and in these cases, AI like ChatGPT and Gemini are fantastic tutors. My third medium is physical books. I read mostly non-fiction, with topics in math, human psychology, and history. (I do read quite a bit of sci-fi too.) I’m not including textbooks in this, as these resources are a unique category in their own respect. I’ve included a library tab in this site so you can see some of my favorite books as I go through them.
And what's this webpage?
This site is my personal portfolio. It is a big ol’ work in progress, really ever-growing and changing. It’s part of a collection of actions i’m taking to share my work, practice open science, communicate my ideas and passions in engineering, and hopefully find a career. I hope you enjoy what I do.
On this site you will find the largest collection of pictures, documents, writings, papers and resources I use or have made. Everything is open for you to learn from or check out. If you want to talk about a project, the best place to get ahold of me is LinkedIn.
If you found yourself here through the SEO, thanks for stopping by! I have plenty to share.
(To the right is a Cirrus aircraft undergoing its 100 hour inspection at my local flight school)
