Monday, August 9, 2021
By:
This week at SPS: This week, we had an awesome practice session where we got feedback and suggestions for our final presentations, and then we had a fantastic 2021 SPS Internship Symposium, so check that video out here. I would highly encourage everyone to watch all of the presentations because they were all very informative talks! However, to hear about what is going on at NASA, check out Gina’s presentation at 1:18:05 talking about EXCLAIM’s mission and data processing, followed by my presentation on the instrumentation to make it possible!
This week at NASA: My last week at NASA was a little slow having finished up many of my projects and not much time left this term to start a new project. However, I did get all my work saved into the vault in SOLIDWORKS for the EXCLAIM team to have easy access to, and I also packed away everything else into a zip folder and made backup copies of my work so that nothing gets lost.
Mind-blowing fact of the week: It’s over, and its sad to go. I will miss the other interns that made this summer so amazing. Especially being virtual, it was awesome to have our get together meet up times to hang out. Thankfully, its not goodbye, but until then because I am excited to meet the SPS and AIP staff, and the interns in person soon at one of the upcoming conferences. Finally, I am pleased to announce that my journey with NASA is far from over! In fact, it will be more than doubled from what I expected in the beginning. I have been offered a continued internship on the EXCLAIM team with NASA for this fall and I start again in two weeks! So yet again, I look forward to new challenges, new opportunities, and more experience!
Thank you: I’d like to express my appreciation for everyone who made this summer possible! Starting at the beginning, thanks to my mom and dad for encouraging me to pursue my dreams and apply to McMurry University, thanks to all of the professors at McMurry where I studied physics and mathematics, and especially to Dr. Tikhon Bykov, Dr. Wayne Keith, and Dr. Timothy Renfro in physics, and to Dr. Cindy Martin, Dr. Mark Thornburg, and Dr. Kelly McCoun in math. Without all of your expertise in your respective subjects and your willingness to guide me through my education at McMurry, I wouldn’t have achieved such an amazing internship! Special thanks to SPS/AIP for hosting the 2021 summer interns, and especially to my fellow interns for making this a fantastic summer. Thank you to Brad Conrad, Kayla Stephens, and Mikayla Cleaver for all of your support this summer, and to NASA and the EXCLAIM team for an internship I will never forget. Last but certainly not least, thank you to my mentors Dr. Eric Switzer and Dr. Tom Essigner-Hileman for your guidance on my projects this summer, and for the opportunity to continue this fall!
Joseph Watson