1. Michael-David A. Lamos: Georgetown University--Personal Statement 1
I am submitting this application to Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies for consideration
and acceptance into the Masters in System Engineering program. As a graduate of The Catholic University of
America (CUA) I have enjoyed a quality Catholic education. I consider Georgetown University to be one of the
finest Jesuit learning institutions anywhere and I would like to continue my studies there. I look forward to
favorable consideration and acceptance and to full participation in the Georgetown MSE program beginning in
the Fall of 2015.
At CUA I obtained a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Aerospace. After
graduation I was fortunate to gain immediate employment with a small and growing FAA approved repair station
in Florida that provides structural repair services to the commercial aviation industry. My undergraduate
engineering studies prepared me for ongoing professional development and my employment since graduation has
reinforced good practice methods and procedures in the workplace, the need to provide correct answers and to do
things correctly the first time, communicating with new people from different backgrounds, and to work to enable
others to do the same.
I am developing into a leader and team player in the workplace. Working in a small company of only
fourteen employees has been very beneficial. As a middle level manager, one can see the top and the bottom of
the business. In a smaller company key players are required to do many different things, including acquiring and
utilizing an overview of the entire business process. In my position when things go poorly I hear about it very
quickly from the top and must work rapidly to implement change. This includes dealing with underperforming
employees and facilitating communication in order to help these employees do their jobs better.
I believe a Systems Engineering Management program can enable me to better see and learn all sides of
business processes. I currently work with our company’s CEO, CFO, accountant, production managers, and
quality managers and I have experienced firsthand the tension between the competing needs for high production
while maintaining quality assurance. Superimposed over all of our operations are FAA regulations, safety
requirements, and customer expectations – all of which require familiarity and dexterity in application. This is a

2. Michael-David A. Lamos: Georgetown University--Personal Statement 2
difficult balancing act but, having been exposed to some of these important facets of the business, I believe I can
further leverage this experience with a Masters in Systems Engineering Management. I am ready to do that with
full engagement and discipline.
My background strengths in leadership, communication, and management skills derive in part from my
training and experience as a high school and college athlete. I was a three-letter varsity high school athlete and
was recruited to play football at CUA as a strong safety. Football taught me a deep appreciation for concerted
teamwork, discipline, and personal responsibility. As the leader of a defensive unit I learned that football success
is often based on study and preparation. When a player misses a defensive assignment, the entire team suffers. I
believe the same principle applies to the professional practice of engineering and project management.
In my undergraduate sophomore year I participated in materials science research supported by Boeing, the
U.S. Air Force, and CUA. I was deeply involved in studying and testing Carbon-Nano Tubes (CNT) threads
under stress. The aim was to generate data from which a new composite material might be developed that could
be capable of “communicating” early evidence of structural fatigue in real time. (Imagine a material that could
tell you in advance that it is in the process of failure!) The processing of the data required in this project was
challenging because it required both engineering knowledge and interpolation of statistical data. Under the
leadership, vision, and mentoring of Professor Dr. Jandro L. Abot and the support of a motivated team of research
assistants, we were able to author and publish our findings in The Journal of Reinforced Plastic and Composites.
During my undergraduate junior year we received a grant from NASA Goddard to participate in a high-
altitude balloon research project. The research goal was to create a platform to float 120,000 feet above the Earth
and into the edge of space. We employed a number of multiple low-grade gyroscopes designed to communicate
data and to effectively “vote” at high-altitude, showing us the platform’s orientation twenty-three miles above the
Earth’s surface. Our work was evaluated by both NASA Goddard and CUA and the results widely published.
The project’s financial and design constraints provided insight into project management of complex systems and I
am proud to have been part of that team and to have learned much by participating in such astronautic research
and engineering.

3. Michael-David A. Lamos: Georgetown University--Personal Statement 3
As an undergraduate senior, I was part of a five-member team that won the CUA “Best Mechanical
Engineering Senior Design Project” for 2014. We designed from scratch and for competition an electric “giant
scale” radio-controlled aircraft to lift as much weight as possible without failure, all in accordance with a strict
set of requirements and constraints. Out of seventy-five teams that competed, our plane placed nineteenth in the
2014 SAE Aero Design East competition in Atlanta, Georgia. This international competition featured teams from
all over the world. We witnessed the planes of many other teams fail and crash round by round as the weight
each plane carried was increased. Our plane flew sixteen times and never failed. This project seemed to
epitomize important aspects of systems engineering because all team members were required to compromise their
sub-system designs to achieve an overall superior design. I was also a teaching assistant and a grader for multiple
professors, including Dr. Sen Nieh, the Chair to the Mechanical Engineering Department.
I plan to bring to Georgetown University my talents and qualities of honesty, responsibility, commitment
to excellence and successful performance. The Catholic University of America provided me with an excellent
engineering background and my work experience has broadening my horizons and professional development. I
believe the Georgetown University Masters in System Engineering Management program can provide an
excellent next step toward achieving my goal of working in the aerospace and defense industry.