University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science | 2025 Dean's Report - Flipbook - Page 19
593+
CEAS co-op partners
90%
of students have full-time job
o昀昀ers before graduation
NASA CO-OPS HELP ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT
ACHIEVE GOAL TO WORK IN AEROSPACE
W
76%
of students are o昀昀ered a job
by their co-op employer
hen she was in high school,
University of Cincinnati alumna
Anna Lanzillotta dreamed of working
as an engineer in the aerospace and
aviation industry. When she graduated
from UC in 2022, Lanzillotta took with
her an electrical engineering degree,
experience working at NASA for four
cooperative education jobs, and a
full-time job in the aerospace industry.
Today, Lanzillotta is a nuclear research
facility engineer at Idaho National
Laboratory where she supports the
radioisotope power systems group,
which contributes to NASA missions.
Lanzillotta entered UC in the First-
Year Engineering Program, which
allows students to take foundational
engineering courses to explore
different areas before applying to a
specific engineering major. Although
she didn’t gain admittance to the
highly competitive aerospace engineering program she desired, she
sparked an interest in electrical
engineering during her early classes.
“ I REALIZED I COULD STILL PURSUE
A CAREER IN AEROSPACE AND
AVIATION AS AN ELECTRICAL
ENGINEER.” – ANNA LANZILLOTTA
As a student, Lanzillotta’s first co-op
at the UC Utility Plant was actually
her first job ever. In addition to the
hands-on experience she gained
working in the power generation
facility, she developed the confidence
as a working professional that led
her to pursue a coveted co-op role
at NASA.
The Cincinnati native spent two co-op
rotations at NASA’s Johnson Space
Center in Houston as an audio systems
engineer. Lanzillotta designed and
tested solutions for improving the
speaker and microphone system for
use inside the next generation spacesuit
for future Artemis missions.
was accepted into NASA Pathways,
a career-readiness program, and had
offers from three different NASA locations.
She chose to work at NASA Langley
Research Center in Virginia because
she felt the experience would be
different than any of her previous work.
At Langley, Lanzillotta performed
electromagnetic compatibility testing
for spaceflight hardware to ensure
the equipment works in space. She
later worked for Langley’s Aerospace
Flight Systems Branch exploring
applications of model-based systems
engineering tools for use on the
International Space Station.
For her final two co-ops, Lanzillotta
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | CEAS
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