Evan Pittam

Engineer. Musician. Educator. Problem solver. Above all else, learner.Evan is a junior at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, pursuing bachelor's degrees in aerospace engineering and music performance. While music is a deep passion of his, his overall career goal is to work in the aerospace industry, developing sustainable forms of flight and rocket propulsion.In search of an engineering internship for the summer of 2025!

Engineering Experience

During his time in both high school and college, Evan has engaged himself fully with the opportunities that surround him. He is proud to be a member of organizations like UW Madison's formula team and rocket club. He's also been involved in research with several groups who's focuses range from medical research to fluid dynamics and environmental engineering. While Evan is an avid learner and enjoys being a student, he also spends time educating those around him. He has worked as a tutor and currently holds a TA position for the College of Engineering.

Musical Journey

Evan began playing the trumpet at age 10. Since then, he has studied under various teachers, learning numerous styles of music, including classical, jazz, modern, and baroque. Now, Evan studies classical and baroque trumpet under Professor Jean Laurenz, professor of trumpet at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He's been involved with ensembles ranging from orchestral, wind band, brass quintet, and trumpet ensembles. He's competed with the UW Madison Trumpet Ensemble in the 2024 National Trumpet competition, and he currently plays with the UW Madison symphony orchestra.

Clubs and Organizations

Badger Ballistics, Rocket Club:
As a member of the recovery team and structures team, Evan helped to build a competition rocket to compete in the 2024 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. He worked to constructed the rocket out of fiber glass and epoxy resin with structures team, and helped implement code to calculate rocket trajectory with recovery team. He also learned the basics of computational fluid dynamics using Star CCM+.Formula Team, Society of Automotive Engineers:
As a member of the composites team and the powertrain team, Evan completed various hands on tasks. These tasks included engine pulls, as well as the shaping of carbon fiber composite materials using pneumatic power tools.

Experience as an Educator

Evan has taken the joy he gets from learning in class and through research and extends it to others as an educator. His sophomore year of college, he accepted a tutoring position through the UW Madison College of Engineering. He led groups of students in tutoring sessions for courses like calculus one and two, as well as engineering statics.The following summer, Evan accepted a position as an undergraduate academic advisor, also within UW Madison's College of Engineering. Through this position, he was responsible for introducing the College of Engineering to all incoming engineering freshman. This included giving a presentation once a week, as well as leading a group of four to six students every morning to help them decide their fall semester courses.Evan is eager to begin his next position as a student assistant for ME 201, an introductory course for mechanical engineers.

Research Groups

Evan's first job as a researcher began his freshman year of college with UW Madison's School of Medicine and Public Health in the Department of Radiology. Evan designed parts and devices for a team of MRI researchers conducting image testing of small rodents. Parts primarily included devices to restrain unconscious rodents to keep them secure while images were taken.Currently, Evan holds a position as a student researcher with UW Madison's Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Processes Lab where he studies the motion of small flexible fibers in wavy conditions. Evan is responsible for conducting experiments with a wave tank, as well as interpreting data using software such as MATLAB. While this is currently his main research focus, he has done work designing devices to measure the shear force of waves.

Gig Work

Evan has experience playing trumpet for church gigs in his hometown of Libertyville, Illinois. He also routinely plays bar gigs at a local country bar in Madison, Wisconsin. Evan thoroughly enjoys all the gig work he does, and always responds to offers extended to him. If you have any gig requests, scroll to the bottom of the site and contact him via either the given email or his Instagram account.

Ensembles

Beyond gig work, Evan has played in a vast array of settings. While he primarily plays trumpet for the university symphony orchestra and wind ensemble, he's always playing with a smaller ensemble of musicians, ranging from brass quintets to trumpet ensembles. Evan had the pleasure of competing in Kingsville, Texas, for the 2024 National Trumpet Competition with UW Madison's trumpet ensemble. Evan has also competed in University of Illinois's Superstate Concert Band Festival in 2022 with the Libertyville High School Wind Ensemble.

Personal Interests

Despite devoting much of his time to academics and music, Evan has several hobbies and has a deep fascination with all things space. During the academic year, Evan enjoys going to Wisconsin Badgers football games with friends and attending Madison Symphony Orchestra concerts. During the summer, Evan plays disc golf, sails on Lake Mendota with the UW Madison sailing club, and goes on hiking trips with friends and family. He thoroughly enjoys playing long and complex board games like Catan, War of the Ring, and Twilight Imperium. He loves keeping up with aerospace news on NASA and SpaceX, and is incredibly fond of NASA's X-59 project.