Q&A: Ratul Pradhan ’25 makes a consequential impact as part of White House AM Forward initiative

Ratul Pradhan
Ratul Pradhan ’25 worked as a software engineering intern at ASTRO America Through the Eisenhower Institute’s Summer Fellowship program.

At Gettysburg College, Ratul Pradhan ’25 has built a consequential career, making a positive impact on our campus community through his commitment and passion for making the world a better place.

Over the course of his time at Gettysburg, Pradhan has left an indelible mark in many corners of campus. Through the Office of Residential Education, he has led Orientation activities for first-year students and currently oversees management of 18 college houses as the assistant residential life coordinator, fostering and creating an inclusive and diverse community. He works with the Office of Student Activities and Greek Life and the alumni chair of Lambda Chi Alpha, and as a first-year, he founded a new music-focused club called Listeners & Performers. He has experienced campus life to its fullest, taking advantage of the Gettysburg Approach to create an individualized major (business, management, and analytics) alongside a computer science major and music and data science minors.

The native of Kathmandu, Nepal, and Darjeeling, India, also studied abroad in Berlin, Germany, last fall, which helped him develop his interest in working with technology that impacts public policy. This past summer, Pradhan took part in an Eisenhower Institute Summer Fellowship at the Applied Science and Technology Organization (ASTRO) of America in Washington, D.C. where he helped enhance manufacturing capabilities associated with the White House AM Forward initiative. This program aims to help lower costs for American families by improving the competitiveness of America’s small-and-medium-sized manufacturers, creating and sustaining high-paying manufacturing jobs, and improving supply chain resilience through adoption of additive manufacturing.

Empowered by his education and experiences at Gettysburg, Pradhan used his problem-solving skills and broad-based knowledge to help fix software impacting work efficiency and accessibility. His solution balanced the need for ease of use, availability, and distribution, while considering integral security protocols and firewalls of industry leaders like Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, and General Electric.

Hear how Pradhan approached this Career-Ready Experience in D.C.

Which Career-Ready Experience did you take part in this past summer?

“I had the opportunity to intern at ASTRO America as a software engineering intern. ASTRO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute and think tank that works to advance public interest through manufacturing technology and policy. I specifically worked on ASTRO’s Additive Manufacturing (AM) Common Qualification Template project as part of ASTRO’s management of the White House AM Forward initiative.”

What was your role at ASTRO America?

“My role this summer was to investigate an implementation of the template created by the team headed by Dr. William Tredway for more accessible use and distribution using existing software and creating new applications where necessary.

“I spent the first few weeks brainstorming possible applications, creating a website, a Java GUI-based executable application, and a cloud-based storage system. It became evident these solutions would either be breaching security controls for industry leaders or have privacy concerns. For this reason, I decided on a solution based on Microsoft Access and MySQL, which are database management software, as this would be readily available to most Microsoft Office users and easiest to integrate within a company’s security protocols and workflow.

“The majority of my daily work involved converting the Excel/Word-based template into tables, forms, and reports in Access while linking them to each other Visual Basic code running in the backend, allowing users to navigate the template’s decision tree-like flowchart while seamlessly adding, retrieving, and printing information through forms and reports.”

Pradhan with Neal Orringer
Pradhan alongside Neal Orringer, president and co-founder of ASTRO.

How did the knowledge and skills you’ve gained at Gettysburg College help you during this internship?

“As a computer science major, I have worked with software-specific teams that focus attention and skills on technological needs. This internship was a welcome change, as my role with ASTRO centered around bridging the gap between senior manufacturing fellows and their technical requirements. I assisted their initiatives by providing a perspective and a background in developing software applications for their needs.

“I think overall the biggest takeaways from the last four years have been the organizing, managing, and intrapersonal skills I’ve had a chance to practice. Whether it was learning to lead and manage a fast-growing organization in my first year, learning how to set priorities and delegate with all the activities I was actively part of, or studying abroad my junior year, I truly believe Gettysburg has provided me a community where my passions and interests have intersected and grown.”

What support did you receive from Gettysburg College?

“I was selected as a Summer Fellow for the Eisenhower Institute. This experience truly would not have been possible without the Eisenhower Institute’s support and EI Executive Director Tracie Potts’s continuous mentorship and support for all my endeavors. Furthermore, through EI, I was also supported through a grant via the Special Competitive Studies Project-SCSP Fellowship for experiential learning in public policy and technology.”

How did this experience prepare you for your future career?

“It helped me visualize where I see myself as a developer/engineer moving forward. Working on this schema helped me hone my ability to find solutions to open-ended questions. I also realized I want a career in technical communication, similar to how my weekly consultations this summer led me to adding and modifying the schema with the user’s accessibility in mind.

“I was fortunate to have completed most of the work over the summer and have been asked to help with this initiative over the course of the semester as a consultant to completion with ASTRO, which I am extremely excited about!”

The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College connects aspiring young leaders with public policy experts to discover their passion and tackle society’s most challenging issues. Learn more about the organization’s mission and vision.

By Corey Jewart
Photos provided by Ratul Pradhan ’25
Posted: 09/17/24

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