Summer experiences for Brown Engineers

I hoped to get an introduction to robotics, and gain experience working with software used in robotics. I also hoped to get a feel of what grad school would be like, since this experience took place in a research environment, and the program had information sessions about grad school.

I worked in a robotics lab that not only allowed me to experience working with a robot, but also working with teams across universities producing cutting edge research. This experience prepared me for both industry and academia.

I worked on a 12-DOF quadruped robot named Spirit, namely processing the data that it produces as it traverses across regolith. With each step it takes, it senses the “stiffness” of the ground beneath its toes, data which I used to produce a stiffness heatmap using machine learning and Gaussian processes.

It did - before this experience I was unsure if I would pursue a master’s degree. The lab environment, along with the support I received from my postdoc mentor and my PI, changed my mind and made me certain that I would be applying for my master’s.

The independence and ownership I had over my project. My mentors trusted me to take the lead and produce results. This made me feel like a valuable member of the team, and encouraged me to ask to continue working with them past my internship. In addition, I will be a coauthor on an upcoming paper.

I wanted to gain hands-on experience working with rocket engines and make valuable contributions to building better launch vehicles. After graduation, I intend to enter the commercial aerospace industry as an engineer, so this internship was directly relevant to that plan.

I worked on the Raptor program, focusing on electromechanical products through the avionics team. I was given ownership over production processes and manufacturing tooling and contributed to designing flight parts. The bulk of my work was mechanical design, which developed into learning experiences with CAD, analysis, statistical qualification, and aerospace-grade manufacturing.

Going into the summer, I knew that I wanted a career in commercial aerospace, but I wasn't sure what area I wanted to focus on. Through this experience, I now know that my passion lies in propulsion engineering for spacecraft.

On June 6, the Starship vehicle launched for the fourth time in a test flight, and I had the opportunity to watch the launch from mission control in Hawthorne. I was blown away by the excitement from my coworkers as we witnessed the culmination of countless hours of hard work. It's moments like those that reignite my passion for space exploration.

Working at the intersection of fashion and engineering has always been my dream — this summer at Tiffany & Co. synthesized both my passions, drawing on all the skills I developed in college. This experience has been transformative, and I’m excited to leverage these skills and connections in my future endeavors.

Over the span of 10 weeks, I was immersed in the jewelry production ecosystem, working alongside talented craftspeople and engineers. I’m grateful for the chance to learn about lean manufacturing firsthand and to use process engineering to make critical improvements to an exciting product launch. In addition to my core responsibilities, I earned my LVMH certification, a specialized industry program covering operations, creation, and supply chain in the luxury fashion sector.

I never knew manufacturing or process engineering positions existed before working at Tiffany & Co., but I love these roles! They require a combination of technical engineering skills, as well as logic and problem solving skills.

I hoped to experience software engineering at a federal agency to understand not just the pros and cons of the job but also of the industry dealing with aerospace engineering and deep space exploration, which I have been interested in since a young age. I was really eager to work for the Small Satellite Technology Program at Ames, as the group is surrounded by brilliant minds that contributed to amazing projects like the Orion rocket for the Artemis Program and the Kepler Telescope operations, and this opportunity was a fantastic learning experience for someone aspiring to be an engineer in emerging technology.

Due to my interest in space technology projects, this experience was a direct look into industry work and the perfect opportunity for me to combine all of my past research experiences into an engineering internship. NASA has always been a company that I have wanted to work for, potentially long-term as well, so this summer experience played a huge role in setting me up for a potential career in space technology and flight. However, I still have some time to explore different industries and corporate work, so I'm keeping my options open!

I worked for the Small Satellite Technology Program (SSTP), but more specifically, within the S3VI, the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute. My official code was PX, or product management, so my work consisted of managing multiple different interns for one big software project in small-satellite R&D where we transfer national state-of-the-art data on satellite technologies into an interactive web application platform while also updating general government servers to more modern algorithms for a better user experience.

My favorite part of the experience was probably meeting new people. My internship was unique in the sense that many of the summer interns at Ames were allowed to live on the actual base in NASA lodging, and this experience ensured that no one was truly alone. It really felt as if I was simply on yet another college campus, meeting people from several different walks of life, learning about their academic backgrounds and the work they do for NASA, and just having a good time. It's never a boring day at work.

Through this experience, I wished to learn what materials research in industry looks like compared to academia. Additionally, I wanted to identify if research could be a career path for me.

This internship helped me confirm my interest in technical engineering roles, specifically in research and development. In the future, I plan to work in a role where I can work on cutting-edge research with the end goal of designing products that improve people's daily lives.

I designed and verified a mechanical test method to analyze the surface treatment of glass microbeads utilized in pavement marking tapes. I also learned how to create a robust experimental method and use statistics to analyze data and act as a guide.

My experience at 3M has solidified my desire to pursue a Ph.D. Continuing my education is the best way to open up doors in research and development within materials science.

My favorite part of the experience was knowing that the work that I was doing would help people make it back home safely from being on the road. Knowing that my work will positively impact the world motivated me, and I wish to continue this type of work in the future.

I wanted to learn about governmental job opportunities in research, as well as gain scientific coding skills. I got the opportunity to work with multiple mentors who are leaders in their field of physical oceanography.

My project was a physical oceanography data science project where I compared the wave measurements and calculations between a novel unmanned sailboat drone (Saildrone) and traditional buoys. I worked primarily on MATLAB to do spectral and statistical analysis of the different systems. This project was my first exposure to physical oceanography, but built upon skills I had gained through my engineering coursework.

Going into my summer internship I was already pretty set on going to graduate school and research as a career. During my internship I got a taste of what scientists do day to day and it taught me about the balance between experimental, theoretical, and computational work I want to pursue in my future. The experience cemented the fact that I do want to pursue a Ph.D. in engineering.

My favorite part of my summer experience was working for an organization that was mission-oriented. Though the day to day work was similar to what I've done in the past, the goal of our group's research was all to advance environmental and science goals that I'm passionate about. This collective goal was a great connector between all of the employees, and other interns that made the summer an enjoyable experience.

I was really looking forward to experiencing what the culture is like at Boston Scientific (BSC). I'm very interested in working in the medical device industry after graduating and worked for Medtronic last summer so checking out BSC was a great step towards getting a better sense of possible options! It's always such a gift to live in a new space! I have never lived in the midwest so I was so excited by the idea of exploring what it has to offer!

I worked in the Urology Research & Development department focused on New Product Development (NPD). My work included executing testing procedures, protocol writing, CAD modeling and presenting benchmarking data.

I feel even more compelled to work in the medical device industry - seeing the incredible impact they have on patients over the past two years.

I'm grateful to say that so many aspects of this experience were incredible. The team I worked with is certainly a standout - I felt so supported, welcomed and involved throughout the entire summer. My mentor was especially impactful - he was such a perfect representation of the wonderful people that BSC attracts. The internship program was organized and managed so well - I truly felt cared for. Minnesota also surprisingly grew on me! Beautiful, green and a hub for med tech- such a place to be!

Daldrop designs and manufactures custom cleanroom technologies for clients in the pharmaceutics, biotechnics, and microelectronics industries. Daldrop is a more vertically integrated engineering company than many competitors in the cleanroom space, with custom design, manufacturing, quality assurance/control all handled in-house.

I was grateful to gain exposure to these various elements of the engineering process, as well as more specialized knowledge of industrial and commercial electrical engineering. I hope to go into the field of renewable transition and grid modernization, so it was invaluable to see familiar electrical engineering concepts from the classroom applied at the commercial and industrial scales.

My work included an analysis of the electrical wiring diagrams used for all low voltage control devices and line voltage lights, receptacles, air handlers, door drives, and process machinery in a recent project. This data was used to develop innovative technologies that will cut costs and reduce copper usage by taking conductors, cables, and connections out of the field and into the factory. I also was fortunate enough to gain my OSHA10 certificate through Daldrop and spend some time on two job sites, first assisting with handover training for a completed facility, then conducting the biannual HVAC certification of a manufacturing plant.

My favorite part of the experience was visiting my first job site, a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility where Daldrop had recently completed a cleanroom, to train the facility's staff on how to use, monitor, and maintain the technology.

This program was designed to give students experience in developing experimental design and analytical skills for research projects, with a variety of workshops and hands-on research to apply in our assigned projects. This program was exactly what I was looking for, providing guidance and immersion to allow me to fully focus on improving my abilities.

The program's mission and goals provided me with the tools I needed to develop the skills required to work on future research projects during both my undergraduate and, hopefully, graduate studies at Brown.

I collaborated on a project headed by my co-mentor, Luis Bermúdez, a chemist and Ph.D. candidate, in Dr. Eduardo Nicolau's Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry labs. It entailed developing a novel forward osmosis membrane that is suitable for water reclamation, resistant to fouling, and capable of photocatalytically degrading contaminants in wastewater. I was able to engage in the interdisciplinary fields of chemistry, environmental sciences, and biology. With access to the labs at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus, and the Molecular Sciences Research Center (MSRC), I felt seamlessly integrated into a vibrant community of ambitious minds, enthusiastic individuals, and fellow students exploring their paths. I had the opportunity to work with equipment in areas such as polymer constructs, spectroscopy analysis (¹H NMR, FT-IR), bacteria and cell culturing, and membrane manufacturing. Additionally, the remarkable level of professionalism, guidance, and support from my co-mentor, Luis, and the graduate students in Dr. Nicolaus’ laboratory was extraordinary.

What distinguishes this experience is the people I came across and collaborated with. They are an astounding group — knowledgeable, devoted, and enjoyable to be working with. They were always willing to help, whether it meant going over organic chemistry concepts or offering advice on how to put together a polished research poster or presentation.

I hoped to gain more experience in an industry environment, as well as learn more about nucleic acid purification processes.

This experience gave me valuable insight into how biotechnology companies function on a day-to-day basis. It also provided me with additional laboratory skills that will be useful in future positions.

I had experience with applications more downstream of nucleic acid extraction (i.e. NGS library preparation and sequencing), as well as experiences with laboratory automation. Most of this prior work was within a research setting.

My favorite part of this experience was knowing that the company’s products are shipped and used worldwide for diagnostic applications. For example, the company’s magnetic beads and automation platforms perform critical steps for COVID-19 PCR testing. To be a part of the team making this possible was an amazing opportunity.

I hoped to decide if I wanted to study electrical or computer engineering, get industry experience at a leading company in tech, and expand my network extensively.

It is not only important to what I aim to study in the future, but also opened my mind to the variety of opportunities in the tech industry.

I had a research project focused on how to integrate AI within the field of program management.

Yes. I became aware of the vast pipelines that there are inside and outside of engineering. This experience assured me that I wanted to pursue engineering academically and stay in the technology industry professionally.

Meeting other interns; getting to understand what other students across the nation are working on, their previous internship experiences, and building long lasting connections personally and professionally.

I hoped to gain a deeper understanding of a range of science topics that have been heavily in the news recently like climate change, artificial intelligence, and electric grid modernization. I wanted to develop a good background on a variety of topics while learning about the policies that are implemented to affect these topics.

As a design engineering concentrator, I am committed to exploring the intersection of various engineering fields, sciences, and the ways people influence and interpret science. This opportunity has allowed me to view science not only through textbooks or a research lens but also in terms of its direct impact on the world, even for those not directly involved in the scientific community.

Over the summer I conducted comprehensive policy research and analysis, contributing to the development of reports and policy briefs. Additionally, I attended briefings, Congressional hearings, and various meetings, providing detailed summaries to the MIT Washington Office (which is within the Office of the President of MIT). I participated in regular discussions on current events and project developments related to emerging technology, national defense, nuclear fusion, electric grid modernization, space policy, and artificial intelligence.

It got me more interested in science policy as a possible career.

I got to use my academics in real-world scenarios. I gave recommendations on how to make things more efficient, conducted research on modernizing existing technology, and was in the discussions on integrating emerging technologies with common use through policy implementation. It was the perfect blend of science and policy.