with Owen Bartolf (TLHS/MSEL 2019)
Wed., October 7, 2026; 7:30-8:30 pm
Innovation Hub, Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion Way, San Rafael [Map]
Description: When people think of rockets, they usually imagine powerful engines, sleek nosecones, and satellites that explore the cosmos. A lot goes into a spacecraft, and at the center of these systems is the flight computer, the brain whose instructions carry out the mission. Developing flight software is the art of perfectly orchestrating mathematics, physics, and many fields of engineering to overcome an environment seemingly designed to break your spacecraft. Everyone who works in this niche field has a story of how they got there, and in this talk, I’m going to share mine: how making video games and spacecraft software is surprisingly similar, how a bad college application process can turn around, the math I learned along the way, and what it takes to write code where single bugs can mean lost hardware (or lost fingers!)
Bio: Owen Bartolf graduated from Terra Linda High School’s MarinSEL program in 2019. Throughout college, he wore many hats: undergraduate researcher, software engineer, astrobiology teaching assistant, and rocket team software lead. Between quarters, Owen briefly worked in indie games and at big tech before breaking into space software at Lockheed and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He contributed to Artemis II, Mars 2020 (Perseverance Rover,) and other space missions. After graduating college in 2024, Owen returned to Lockheed Martin to close out Artemis II before moving on to a new role at SpaceX. Outside of work, Owen runs tabletop RPG games, creates fictional worlds, and builds software projects for fun.
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