Mass Properties Intern (Summer)

REGENT•North Kingstown, RI

About The Position

REGENT is developing Seagliders, wing-in-ground-effect craft designed to travel just above the water’s surface and provide coastal transportation for passengers and cargo. The Mass Properties Intern will join the Aero & Performance team within Hardware Engineering and contribute to real vehicle engineering work, supporting the transition from prototype to production. The intern will help control weight and balance as designs mature, including sourcing, verifying, updating, and reporting mass data through configuration changes. The role includes extracting mass, center-of-gravity, and inertia data from CAD; working with cross-functional engineering teams to maintain accurate data; and creating scripts to automate mass reporting and rollups. The intern will also help close out weight and balance control for the prototype and contribute to the management plan, database architecture, and tools intended for production craft. Working independently with guidance from the Mass Properties Engineer, the intern will identify potential weight or center-of-gravity issues and weight-reduction opportunities, agree on a defined goal with their manager early in the term, and present results, assumptions, and data sources to the team at the end of the term.

Requirements

Ability to navigate CATIA, SolidWorks, NX, or similar CAD tools to understand vehicle layout and independently extract mass, center-of-gravity, and inertia data.
Working proficiency in Python, MATLAB, SQL, VBA, or similar scripting tools.
Understanding of center-of-gravity calculations, moment of inertia, and how margins and contingencies are carried through a program.
Ability to focus across multiple active programs and changing priorities.
Proactive and comfortable engaging directly with engineers on other teams to obtain and confirm data.
Effective communication and collaboration with engineers, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams.
Ability to adapt to changing priorities in a fast-paced startup environment.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to PLM or PDM systems and interest in how engineering changes are tracked through a program lifecycle.
Familiarity with aircraft weight-management standards.
Private pilot’s license.
Prior weight and balance experience from a program, class, or club project.

Responsibilities

Support development and implementation of processes for controlling product weight and balance properties as designs mature.
Help determine how mass data is sourced, verified, updated through configuration changes, and reported.
Write scripts to automate mass-properties reporting and mass rollups across programs, with appropriate checks and balances.
Work with adjacent departments, including structures, propulsion, and avionics, to collect and verify mass-properties data and keep the database current.
Gain visibility into the PLM system and digital mock-up (DMU), including system layout and reports generated by responsible engineers.
Assess mass and balance data to flag potential weight or center-of-gravity issues, identify weight-reduction opportunities, and share findings with engineering teams.
Help close out weight and balance control for the prototype vehicle and contribute to the management plan, database architecture, and tools for production craft.
Set priorities and work toward an agreed goal with guidance from the Mass Properties Engineer.
Present results, assumptions, and data sources to the team at the end of the term.