For the Navy and Marine Corps to keep up technological superiority, the companies require a sturdy group of scientists, engineers and technologists able to tackle the service’s present and future challenges, now and for years to return.
The Naval Postgraduate College (NPS) has its personal sturdy historical past of advocacy for the STEM disciplines. Working intently with the Workplace of Naval Analysis STEM Coordination Workplace, along with partnerships with regional establishments, NPS has grow to be a key contributor to the Navy’s aspirations in STEM, offering alternatives for tons of of highschool and faculty college students to chop their tooth on defense-focused analysis alongside NPS school and scientists.
The present crop of interns, one of many smaller teams in relation to previous years, has devoted a number of weeks on a variety of Navy and DOD related analysis initiatives whereas attending to geek out with high researchers within the fields they’re most enthusiastic about.
Joao McGuire of Monterey has served as an NPS intern for 3 years in a row and has returned to get re-energized in analysis work he needs to excel in. He’s engaged on an undergraduate diploma in physics and economics at Johns Hopkins College.
“NPS’ summer season internship program actually made an influence on my larger schooling prospects,” stated McGuire, a graduate of York College in Monterey. “I acquired a full experience scholarship to Johns Hopkins as a result of as I see it, NPS supplied the instruments to be a greater learner in my highschool years, together with the hands-on laboratory work expertise I acquired in these summer season months.”
McGuire’s internship this yr is sponsored by the Naval Analysis Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP), considered one of a number of sponsored internship alternatives within the ONR portfolio. His undergraduate diploma could have an institutional focus in supplies engineering, and he’s taking a look at pursuing graduate faculty within the interdisciplinary area of supplies science or aerospace.
This summer season, McGuire labored with carbon-nanotube metal composite constructions, conducting a put on take a look at to find out construction failure dynamics. He used aluminum silicate because the abrasive at numerous friction factors and moments, utilizing a scanning electron microscope to research element failure.
“I simply acquired skilled on the brand new Centered Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope,” he explains. “It is just a little formidable to work with these machines, nevertheless it definitely is cool.”
McGuire labored alongside former NPS Division of Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Andy Nieto within the faculty’s supplies lab. Tragically, Nieto handed away in a scuba-diving accident within the Monterey Bay in July, however he left a profound influence on so many round him, together with his interns.
“I might say Professor Andy Nieto was my favourite particular person to work with right here. He strode ahead calmly by means of issues in a approach I hope to emulate. Might he relaxation in peace,” stated McGuire.
Most of the interns on the NPS campus are a part of one other program within the ONR portfolio, the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program, or SEAP. This system locations highschool college students in Navy laboratories the place they participate in actual Naval analysis for eight-week phrases through the summer season.
SEAP is a aggressive program with round 300 placements in additional than 30 laboratories across the nation. Interns are chosen based mostly upon tutorial achievement, private statements, suggestions, and profession and analysis pursuits. There are three regional areas throughout the U.S. through which college students can apply.
NPS analysis affiliate Alison Kerr has been on the helm of the college’s internship applications for a number of years, working intently with ONR and several other regional establishments to construct up a formidable program that has impacted tons of of scholars’ lives. Kerr is wrapping up her remaining summer season main this system, retiring on the finish of the yr.
In accordance with Kerr, 260 interns have come to NPS by means of SEAP, 167 by means of NREIP, and localized efforts like Hartnell Faculty’s program has supplied one other 201 college students with alternatives to advance their information within the sciences.
Supplies science has the biggest variety of interns on this present cohort, with Nieto and Dr. Claudia Luhrs supporting six whole interns over the summer season. Along with McGuire, Abigail Kim and Sneha Gokaraju teamed as much as discover analysis in additive manufacturing.
“Our analysis is to have a look at 3-D printed polymer composites beneath sure situations, these situations being the ‘as-printed’ and the QUV-tested [accelerated weathering test] samples to see if the UV radiation influenced the supplies,” defined Kim. “That is the primary analysis venture that I’ve been part of, and I’ve discovered a lot.”
Curiously, Kim came upon concerning the SEAP program by means of a pal simply weeks earlier than the deadline to submit the purposes.
“I acquired fortunate sufficient to go to the meet and greet the place folks can see what initiatives can be found and to fulfill the mentors,” stated Kim. “I noticed that this venture was based mostly off 3D-printed supplies, which I discovered very fascinating, so I despatched out an e mail to the mentor of this venture and I used to be fortunate sufficient to get chosen.”
Kim, who’s starting her junior yr at Carmel Excessive College, credit program supervisor Kerr for creating such a optimistic expertise for her and her fellow interns, particularly beneath troublesome circumstances.
“Alison Kerr is such an incredible particular person! She has helped all the brand new interns out by offering them some line of assist or contact if we’d like any sources for our initiatives or have some common questions on NPS,” stated Kim .“She was so supportive of us after we misplaced our mentor [Nieto], and I’m so grateful that I had the prospect to fulfill her as a result of she is such a caring and compassionate particular person to be round.”
Lahari Yallapragada acquired the prospect to work with senior school within the NPS Division of Laptop Science, Drs. Neil Rowe and Arjit Das. The 2 colleagues have achieved seminal work in digital forensics and cyberwarfare.
“Coming into this internship, I had little or no expertise with analyzing huge knowledge,” Yallapragada stated. “After 8-weeks, I’ve discovered many beneficial abilities, and never simply analyzing huge knowledge.
“Particularly, [we learned about] becoming knowledge to a logistic scale; creating histograms; utilizing advanced math formulation in Python programming, just like the Euclidean Distance Components and the Logistic Sigmoid Perform; and the fundamentals of machine studying fashions by means of Weka software program. I additionally gained beneficial expertise working in knowledgeable setting that I hope to make use of in future internships and jobs,” she added.
Yallapragada, a junior at Monta Vista Excessive College in Cupertino, Calif., did her analysis when it got here to discovering the perfect internship program for her, taking a look at NASA and UCSB earlier than making the choice to use to SEAP.
“I need to work in pc science, particularly one thing to do with synthetic intelligence,” she stated. “I can use the various pc science abilities I discovered at NPS, and I can broaden on my fundamental information of AI/ML that I discovered throughout this internship, for the long run.”
A rising senior at Carmel Excessive College, Zack Seifert, labored with College Affiliate Ross Eldred within the Heart for Autonomous Automobile Analysis the place he discovered to design and fabricate customized circuit boards.
“This practice circuit is designed to meet my professor’s aim of developing a closed loop car, which means that the car will make totally different choices based mostly on its environmental knowledge from sensors,” stated Seifert, who actually valued advancing his abilities in computer-aided design (CAD).
“My extra superior CAD abilities will assist me design new merchandise for my future startups and higher lead my highschool’s robotics staff,” stated Seifert.
“NPS school are tremendous cool and useful,” he continued. “I additionally love the RoboDojo lab as a result of they’ve loads of 3D printers and different superior instruments. And I acquired to study quite a bit about NPS and our nation’s army.”
With one other cohort of summer season internships within the books, the expertise, inspiration and schooling gained make sure the college is contributing to the Navy’s aspirations in STEM, crucial to maintain the U.S. aggressive on this period of technological superiority.
