Who I am.

My name is Magnus Knudsen and I am an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing a Bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Physics.

Currently in my second year, I am enveloping myself in projects of varying scope, discipline, and depth as well as pursuing opportunities for research and further employment.

Outside of my coursework and projects I am highly passionate about photography. For my whole life, I've been infatuated with learning techniques and processes of many different things.

My passion for photography came from a similar source; originally shooting exclusively in film having to learn lighting and framing techniques as well as how to develop and print film was an inviting challenge. The effort I've put in has manifested itself in multiple facets, from shooting panels for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, a nonprofit museum in Cincinnati, to a three-print collage on display in the Columbus Court House.

I like to think that art and engineering go hand in hand, with engineering being intrinsically artistic. Engineering involves creativity and innovation in pursuit of functional perfection, or however close one can possibly be. Just like a photographer composes a shot with attention to multiple different constraints: light, framing, perspective, etc; so too do engineers work towards a solution to a problem following their own constraints: dimension, cost, efficacy, etc. Photography is, in my biased opinion, a very technical art, and technicality is where engineering lies.

As long as I can remember I have always been heavily interested in aviation, growing up I'd see the planes flying low above heading towards the airport, learning to identify them. Eventually visiting airshows and museums of all different sizes. With my interest in everything technical, I knew early on that engineering was the career path for me and aerospace was the most fitting considering my large passion for aviation.