University of Akron graduate sets his sights on the stars as he works toward becoming an astronaut

Alumnus Kenneth Smith was recently profiled by his alma mater, University of Akron. Smith's story includes family strife, a search for his place in the world, and the achievement of many goals, all while keeping his eye on the future. Smith works for NASA, worked previously for Elon Musk's SpaceX, and travels around the world teaching kids about science and engineering. His future goals include becoming an astronaut and a senator.

Smith admits that he lacked the motivation in high school needed to achieve good grades. At the time, he planned on being a rockstar. He initially enrolled in college just because it was what was expected, but he still intended to pursue a career in music. However, in his freshman year, he dropped out of college after his father unexpectedly lost his job, forcing Smith to take a position in a factory, working 60 to 70 hours each week to help support his family. He was working long hours and feeling trapped by his situation. A friend encouraged him to volunteer at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland and doing that sparked Smith's motivation to return to college and study science.

Fortunately, Smith's father found work again, and Smith was able to focus that energy he found working with kids on pursuing his bachelor degree in aerospace systems engineering at University of Akron. During his time at UA, Smith was able to take advantage of many programs, including one that allowed him to work with NASA at the Langley Research Center in Virginia. Smith gives a great deal of credit to the Co-op and Career Placement Office for his success, "The greatest strength of the College of Engineering [and Polymer Science] is easily the co-op program. People don't realize how big that is. You talk to people from other engineering schools, and they don't emphasize it as much. But Akron really emphasizes the hands-on experience, and they put me in contact with NASA to get my first experience. If it wasn't for that, who knows where I would be."

While at UA, Smith and his fellow classmate founded the Akronauts Rocket Design Team with the help of Smith's favorite UA professor, Dr. Francis Loth. The team continues to compete today and placed in the top five at the NASA Student Launch Competition for the past two years. Smith was also active as a student leader, serving as president of both the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and the Engineering Student Council. 

Upon graduation, Smith accepted a position with the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Smith went on to earn his masters from the Georgia Institute of Technology and spent a summer working at SpaceX. Smith has been recognized by both Aviation Week and Forbes for being a young leader in science and engineering. 

Currently, Smith works for NASA and the Johnson Space Center in Houston where he is helping to engineer the Gateway space station, which will support long-term manned exploration of the moon. Additionally, he travels around the world providing education outreach using the persona "KSmooth the Engineering Dude," a role that he embraces as an opportunity to improve the world. As Smith describes it, "Sharing knowledge is the foundation of human progress. If knowledge is power, the most powerful thing you can do is give it away."

Smith's plans for the future are ambitious. Not only does he plan to release an album as KSmooth, using his guitar to write and play songs about science and engineering, he also plans to earn a doctoral degree and get his private pilot license, in addition to studying Russian (which he started earlier in his education as well) and pushing himself to achieve peak physical condition. All this is to help him achieve his goal of becoming an astronaut. Smith says, "At this point, I'm trying to get these extra checkmarks on my resume. I want to be an astronaut."

Smith has plans for the long-term as well. He hopes to become a senator one day and use his scientific expertise to help shape science policy. Smith explained the importance of scientists being involved in policy-making, "Such experts serve as a bridge between researchers and the public. They find ways to translate these esoteric, often highly technical scientific issues for ordinary people, in order to sell it as good policy. We need to do that, because even if we have the greatest scientists in the world, they can't go anywhere without funding and public support."

If his track record of success is any indication, Smith has a good shot at accomplishing it all.