Beyond the Web: The Power of Software

But what you did was just web development.

I hear this all the time.

When people see my projects, the programming languages I use, or the tools I’ve worked with, they often say the same thing. Some recruiters at career fairs have told me the same—even those without an engineering background. It made me realize how differently technical skills are perceived depending on the field.

On the surface, I get it. It looks like I’ve explored various frameworks, and yes, most of them are optimized for web development. But there’s a reason behind that.

What Made Me Start Programming?

As an international student, I found it easy to spend money, but difficult to find opportunities to earn it. I was lucky to get an internship at the SuperDARN group in the summer of 2024, which has helped me pay my rent, but I still felt a deep sense of limitation.

At first, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated seeing people with U.S. citizenship who didn’t fully realize the value of it. But I knew my legal situation wasn’t going to change anytime soon, so rather than feeling stuck, I decided to use my sense of urgency to push myself forward.

I started reading about successful founders—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg—and their early stories of building web applications from nothing.

The story of Zip2 (PayPal) by Elon Musk, Amazon by Jeff Bezos, and Facebook (Meta) by Mark Zuckerberg inspired me. They all started by developing software to change the world, making me realize that programming is the fastest way to create something impactful.

That’s when I decided to start programming. But as an aerospace engineering student, I didn’t know where to begin.

I started building various projects, inspired by those founders—turning ideas into real applications. Some were experimental, some worked well, and others taught me what not to do. But despite putting in so much effort, I never monetized any of them. Due to my F1 visa restrictions, earning money from personal projects wasn’t an option. Instead, I focused on improving my skills and exploring what I could create.

During my three-year gap due to the pandemic, my student license for MATLAB and SolidWorks expired. I couldn’t even open my own work. That moment made me question why aerospace-related software is so restricted and inaccessible.

If you’ve ever used MATLAB, SolidWorks, or other popular aerospace software, you know that they are powerful but ridiculously expensive. When you look at cheaper or free alternatives, their UI/UX is often even worse. I noticed a pattern in aerospace—people in this field often say, ‘If it works, then that’s fine.’ They just accept the software, even if it’s not comfortable to use.

It became clear to me that engineering fields shouldn’t be isolated. Web developers care deeply about user experience, open-source collaboration, and accessibility. Meanwhile, aerospace engineers focus on accuracy, physics-based simulations, and reliability. But imagine if both fields worked together.

Why Web?—From an Aerospace Engineering Student’s Perspective

Unlike other engineering fields, web development and the tech industry move fast. They change rapidly, update constantly, and never slow down. Many people start programming through web development because it’s one of the easiest fields to get into—there’s open-source software everywhere, and an abundance of resources available online. But the key thing about the web is that it’s open to everyone. The only real limitations are the developer’s creativity and technical skills.

At first, I thought web development was just HTML, CSS, and a little JavaScript. It’s not wrong, but there’s more.

Back then, AI tools like ChatGPT didn’t exist, so my best resources were official documentation, YouTube, and Stack Overflow. But as I kept learning, I realized something—web development isn’t just about making websites.

Web development is just one form that software applications can take. Depending on the frameworks and languages used, it can also be transformed into mobile or desktop applications. It’s a continuous cycle of software innovation, rapid prototyping, and scalable systems. As more people enter this field and collaborate, better frameworks and tools continue to emerge. It doesn’t go backward—it just keeps moving forward.

What I Love About Web/Software Development

Here’s what impressed me the most about software development as an aerospace engineering student:

• Git version control and GitHub enable a collaborative, open-source development culture. They allow developers to track every change, revert mistakes, and maintain stability in large projects.
• Countless package libraries and frameworks exist for shared features and functionality. These significantly reduce development time and create structured templates, making large-scale projects accessible to anyone.
• Web development doesn’t just focus on engineering—it prioritizes both user experience and performance. Many companies build and maintain free frameworks like React (by Facebook), Next.js (by Vercel), and TailwindCSS. By making them open-source, they attract developers, collect feedback, and continuously improve.
• To optimize global data transfer speeds, technologies like CDN, edge computing, Static Site Generation (SSG), and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) emerged. Many frameworks adapted to these trends, constantly evolving to improve performance.
• Containerization technologies like Docker allow developers to work seamlessly across different operating systems and dependency versions, making collaboration easier and more efficient.
• I especially respected those who contribute to open-source projects, even without financial gain. They work for the community, not for money.

This entire culture and community inspired me. I’ve never seen anything like it in aerospace software.

My Next Step: Software and Aerospace Together

While developing my own projects based on my ideas, I learned things that I never fully understood just from reading about software or watching tutorials:

• Attracting users is much harder than just building something. Business isn’t easy. Without marketing, people won’t even find your platform, and without a solid solution built with strong technical skills, users will lose interest and move on.
• What’s shown on the surface isn’t the only thing that matters in an application. But at the same time, without good UI/UX, people won’t even understand what’s going on behind the scenes. UI/UX is one of the key factors in making an application successful.
• There are still gaps in technology that we can fill with innovation. Not at the level of classified defense projects or clearance-required work, but in tools and frameworks that students and organizations can collaborate on to build technology that reduces the gap between schools and industries.

Even my portfolio website is a reflection of this journey. I love how software gives me full control over my ideas. The more I explored, the more I saw how software and aerospace aren’t separate fields—they are deeply connected.

Web development was only the start. Now, I’m diving deeper into low-level programming, computational models, and aerospace applications. Watching countless rocket launches—most of them fully autonomous, powered by software—made me realize how critical languages like C, C++, and Rust are in aerospace systems. Their level of control, optimization, and real-time efficiency fascinates me, and I want to understand how they drive modern space technology.

I don’t see software and aerospace as separate worlds anymore. They complement each other. Whether it’s AI-driven material optimization, real-time orbital predictions, or modernizing aerospace simulations, software is the key to unlocking the next generation of aerospace innovation.

And I want to be at the forefront of that.

Because in the end, it’s not about what field I started in. It’s about what I create with what I’ve learned.