David Reynoso

I was born and raised in Oak Cliff, Texas, and my dad does air conditioning. He would take me to work with him when I was younger. I mean, he'd be in attics, in restaurants—commercial, residential, everything. There were just a couple things I really picked up.

The first thing I picked up is that anytime he was helping people with something the people were really thankful for our help. They offered us free food, or they'd invite our family to eat. I saw that engineering can be used to help people.

I saw my father problem-solve and diagnose a problem in the air conditioning unit. He said, "Yeah, someone else thought it was this, but they didn't see this or that, and I did." And it was very simple. Me being a 10 to 14-year-old kid I thought "Oh, this is so much work! Everything's so heavy." It just really inspired me to pursue engineering in the first place.

I already had a loving nature for math in general. When I was younger, I went to speech therapy, so my communication skills weren’t good. My mom would ask me how school went, and words wouldn’t come out—just random stuff. So for the longest time, she and I would just go back and forth with times tables. Even on road trips, she’d throw random math problems at me to keep me entertained.

These two things together made me really want to pursue engineering. And the last thing I’ll add is seeing my dad working in the sun in extreme conditions—especially in the Texas heat. I thought to myself, “I want to pursue this field while working in an office.” And one day, maybe I could hire my dad to work in an office instead of being outside.

That’s how I really got into the field; it’s engraved into my background. But what keeps me excited is how much it has changed in just a few years. Even from a technology standpoint, I can only imagine the growth from when I was younger in the early 2000s to now—and what that could mean 25 or 50 years from now. And I want to be a part of that. Aerospace engineering is the field that pushes that boundary.

Most of my work is focused on a proposal our advisor put through—that's what I've been assigned to. For the past year, I've been using fringe analysis to detect fatigue. Fringe analysis is a modern method for studying ultrasound wave reflections. A laser excites one side of the dog bone sample, while a sensor on the other side picks up and measures the waves. As the waves travel back and forth, they interfere with each other—building up but also canceling out.

This type of analysis has already been applied by a lab mate to study sensitization, another damage-related concept. Now, I’m applying it to fatigue. Learning to use the laser was a highlight of last year. The student who was in charge graduated, so he passed down knowledge, especially about safety and maintenance. It’s exciting because I never imagined myself working with such expensive equipment.

One thing my advisor often reminds me of is not to limit myself. At first, I hesitated with experiments, thinking, "I don’t want to waste material," but she pointed out that we have research funds, resources, and money to support our work. That shifted my perspective—I don’t have to create imaginary boundaries.

The picture shows what I’m currently working on—the mounted dog bone is my latest experiment, and I’m pretty excited about it.

My work focuses on structural health monitoring—bridges, roads, buildings—critical infrastructure that decays over time, where people’s lives depend on durability. Fatigue affects everything. Everything moves, oscillates, and experiences forces we don’t fully understand, but they’re there.

If we improve safety, who knows what could happen without these systems? Structural health monitoring is about detecting issues early—before a crack becomes critical. That’s what’s exciting about my work: using technology to identify fatigue before visual inspection can even catch it because it analyzes the material from within.

Think about anything made of metal—anything that could fail. Safety is the top priority, especially in aviation. People are already anxious about flying, and that fear impacts the industry. Fewer flights mean less revenue, leading to reduced maintenance, inspections, and upgrades—a downward spiral.

My proudest achievement happened early on—I was accepted into the GEM Fellowship going into grad school with Aerospace Corporation as my corporate sponsor. I spent three summers with them as a GEM Fellow, plus two summers before that as an undergrad intern.

During one summer with GEM, I had the opportunity to present directly to the CEO in person (2022) and received great feedback. It was surreal because, at a recent GEM conference, the CEO recognized me again and asked how I’ve been.

Home—it’s where I can relax but also get work done. I can learn from events, get last-minute printing done, and see people I’ve grown close to over the past year or two. It’s the one place at UTA where I can step away, especially from the lab, where it’s easy to get stuck all day. It truly feels like home.