ESP Biography



NAYLAH CANTY, MIT freshman studying Aerospace Engineering



Major: 16 and 11

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2023

Picture of Naylah Canty

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hello! My name is Naylah Canty and I am a 4th-year undergraduate majoring in Course 16 (AeroAstro) and Course 11 (Urban Studies) here at MIT. I come from a semi-urban, but not suburban, area near Atlanta, Georgia, where I attended an Arts High School. In high school, I devoted my evenings to Girls Who Code, FRC Robotics, Mock Trial, Math Modelling, and Volunteering. I've completed research in MIT's Space Propulsion Laboratory on electrospray thruster propellants and with the ASTRA project to analyze NASA's portfolio of missions. I am also a member of the Black Student Union, Black Women's Alliance, Infinite Magazine, and previously involved in dance. I hope to combine my majors in a unique fashion to propose innovate infrastructure that supports transit on earth and beyond.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

E15135: How to Settle a Planet in Splash 2022 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2022)
Have you ever envisioned a future for humanity beyond our earth? How about an outpost for scientific discovery as close to the last frontier as we can go? If so, you would be a perfect candidate to learn How to Settle a Planet - the art of doing what has never been done before. Planetary settlement, what seemed like science fiction a few decades ago, has blossomed into a hotbed of engineering ingenuity and business opportunity. While constraints on settlement establishment are imposed by survival needs and resource (oxygen, fuel, minerals, power, etc.) limits, we (yes, you and I!) have the unique chance to design an ideal society that draws on the lessons we learned from settling Earth.


E13347: Electric Propulsion for Modern Spacecraft in Splash 2019 (Nov. 23 - 24, 2019)
An overview of electric propulsion systems suited for deep space missions such as the Hall Thruster, Ion Spray Thruster, Solar Sail, and Magneto Plasma Dynamic (MPD) Thruster. This class will give you a basic understanding on how electromagnetic principles let new age propulsion systems generate thrust in the vacuum of space. You will also get to create a mini Solar Sail of your own!