About

Drew Novak

As of 2026, I am an engineering undergraduate student with a passion for tech and aerospace. I've found that I love applying engineering fundamentals to real-world problems - no matter what the problem is.

I am currently interested in expanding my knowledge in controls and electro-mechanical integration with the hope to work as an R&D Design engineer in future internships and when I eventually graduate with my undergraduate/graduate degree.

I have learned a ton through my manufacturing, integration, and R&D experience. I believe I am in a powerful position to leverage these lessons to become a smart, effective, and efficient design engineer and leader

How did I decide to become an engineer? (the full story)

I never had one "aha" moment like seeing a space shuttle launch that made me say: I want to be an engineer! I originally wanted to be a train engineer way back in pre-k but I soon realized I wanted to build things. Besides trains, I had a love for things that move. Trains, planes, and automobiles is a pretty good summary of my childhood with multiple transportation themed road trips. Some of my earliest memories are playing with matchbox sized planes with my brother in the back seat of our parents car while watching planes take off from the MSP cell phone lot for hours on end, then going home and watching a few episodes of mythbusters. At the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever - in hindsight, it was pretty cheap entertainment for us kids!

Throughout elementary school I took a lot of motivation from my dad who is a Software Engineer & Architect, and my dream job for a while was to follow in his footsteps and become a SWE myself. I started my introduction to software engineering through block coding in 5th grade FIRST robotics. Through this I made some life-long friends and started learning HTML, CSS, and a little bit of python on the side to develop some simple website games and play with Raspberry Pi's.

As I progressed in robotics through high school I was happy doing the programming side of things, but really wanted to try out the hardware. I never fully committed myself to learning the hardware design which is something that I regret. Because of this as I finished up my high school career and started applying to colleges I wanted to do something that wasn't just software. I wanted hardware design. This led me back to my love of planes and military aircraft all the way back from pre-k. I learned that aerospace engineering was a great way to combine this yearning for hardware with aircraft - it was a win-win.

When I got to Purdue's First Year Engineering program, I was dead set on becoming an Aerospace Engineer and working at a big 5 defense contractor. Quite literally in my first day of classes, I realized there we're so many more opportunities. This led me to a dilema between continuing into Purdue's Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical engineering programs. At the very last second (approximately 4 hours before T2M was due) I switched from Aerospace to Mechanical. I did this because I didn't want to limit myself to just Aerospace. I've had a love of building computers and software engineering since elementary school and keeping up with the latest tech-industry trends has always been a passion of mine - and Mechanical Engineers can and do real work there! Thats why I decided on a MechE major and ECE minor, because I love the integration of physical hardware, electrical components, and software.

Throughout my internship experience so far I have gotten to see this combination of MechE and ECE in a tech/semiconuductor as well as Aerospace setting. I am truly proud to have this experience so early and have learned a ton from it. I learned that semiconductor fabrication is a bit too low-level for me to be intruiged, and aerospace has some really cool MechE + ECE integrations but can sometimes be slowed down by older systems. As I look forward to what I want to do in my future career I want to continue to get my masters, and work in an R&D design/integration role on electro-mechanical components (with a potential interest in controls!).