Member Spotlight – Ben Harbarenko

Introducing Ben Harbarenko, a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student with a passion for reaching new heights, both academically and literally – he loves hiking, backpacking into the unknown, snowboarding down the slopes, and best of all, helping AlbertaSat explore the cosmos. 

Ben embarked on his satellite building journey during his second year as his love for aerospace engineering drew him to AlbertaSat. Presently, he serves AlbertaSat as our Mechanical Team Lead, following in the footsteps of Tyler Stocking. Describing his experience in this role, Ben revealed the complexity of working on the mechanical aspects of a satellite: “there are a number of subsystems, and the Mechanical team has to physically interface with every other sub system. It’s a whole can of worms.”

When discussing Ex-Alta 3, Ben mentioned the part which he was most excited about: ICARUS. He also alluded to how the name captures the audacious spiritof the project, while also bringing up the irony that “Icarus flew too close to the sun.” Looking towards the future, Ben envisions a career in the aerospace industry, perhaps joining Wyvern or any other aerospace company that builds cutting-edge CubeSats.

Despite being a 2% milk, easygoing kinda guy, there is one thing that might ruffle his cosmic feathers – bring him a bad CAD design, and you might just witness the birth of a new mantra: “CAD is bad.” Otherwise, Ben’s laid back demeanor has him drinking coffee, sleeping and 3D printing to destress.  Relating to 3D printing, Ben recalls Mec E 265 as his favorite class because it was very useful and applicable to his goals. On the flip side, he shudders at the memories of Math 300 and Engg M 401, a finance class.