Matz Heads to NASA!

Last week was such a fun week! It was a pretty chill week in terms of work; the design team and I basically just spent our time printing our prototypes, reaching out to people around the Bay Area that could serve as resources for Dr. Cagle's project, and working on our own independent CAD projects (for example, I CAD'ed a fidget spinner from scratch using Fusion 360). However, the Smith students were offered the opportunity to go to lots of cool lectures and tours over the course of this week. As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a tour of the 80x40 wind tunnel on Monday. The fun and adventures only continued as the week progressed. I began last Tuesday by going to a lecture entitled "Satellite Formation-Flying for Future Space Science and Exploration." The talk was given by a Stanford professor named Simone D'Amico, and it was about how we can pair two or more satellites to accomplish mission objectives. He talked about the rendezvous of the Gemini 6 an...

Last week was a short week in terms of work. After the four-day weekend for the 4th of July, I only had to work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. My design team and I spent basically all day on Wednesday in the Singularity University iLab, working on 3D printed parts for Dr. Cagle's project. We were able to successfully print a few parts using the FormLabs printer. This particular 3D printer operates using a liquid resin. A platform lowers into a bath of the liquid resin, and a UV light is used to cure the liquid, layer by layer, into the shape that you want to print. I found that the FormLabs printer is very user friendly, and the resolution of the prints is exceptional. The FormLabs printer is an awesome tool that we have access to for Dr. Cagle's project. On Thursday morning, I went to a lecture about how humans adapt in space. I was expecting the talk to be about how humans psychologically adapt to being in space; after all, it can get awfully lonely up there. I also t...

I am finally back on the NASA Ames campus after a long, exciting weekend away for the 4th of July! The week before I left, I mostly did a lot of internet research to gather information that could be useful for the design of Dr. Cagle's product. I combed over a lot of patents, articles, and other documents to gain information. I also went to some really cool lectures: Mars Geography & Exploration, hosted by NASA and the SETI Institute How to incorporate electronics into fashion, with Kitty Yeung Taking advantage of your internship & career opportunities at NASA, hosted by George Gorospe of NASA Ames I learned so much at the lectures, and it is so awesome to hear about different people's projects. Finally, on Friday I got meet Elle Stapleton, who works full time at the Singularity University Innovation Lab. (I mentioned Singularity in a previous post; they are a think tank here in the Silicon Valley that runs a summer program for post-docs.) She showed us ...

As you all can tell, my second week here at the NASA Ames Research Center is now complete! It was kind of a weird week in terms of structured work time, but overall I really feel as if I've made some headway this week! On Monday, our group of Smith interns gave a big presentation to our supervisor, Dr. Cagle. This presentation was the culmination of a project we've been working on for the past two weeks. Dr. Cagle wanted us, as a group, to design our own version of the product that she's been working on. Before Monday we had never actually seen the product as Dr. Cagle has engineered it. The point of designing our own prototype was to familiarize ourselves with the literature, and to get our creative juices flowing. Dr. Cagle ended up loving all of our ideas! But when she unveiled the product as she created it, we realized that our prototype looked nothing like the actual product. Dr. Cagle was totally okay with this, though. She loved how creative and in-depth we had g...

My first week at NASA is complete! It has been a whirlwind, and there has been a serious learning curve and adjustment to living on my own. Luckily I have made friends with some really cool people, both from Smith and other colleges around the country. Some of the other interns staying at the Lodge with us are from Iowa State, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Idaho State, and many more! Also shout-out to my fantastic roommate, who has been very supportive, kind, accepting, and is great cook! All throughout the week, I continued working on the product & project that my intern group has been working on since my start here. We wrap up this part of the project tomorrow (Monday), and after that we'll move on to different assignments and tasks. I am excited to see what is in store. A few interns in our group went to a really cool seminar this past Thursday. There were two lectures; the first was entitled "Life Support Systems – Air Revitalization at Ames," and it was abo...

Today was my first day of work at the NASA Ames Research Center! Yesterday, my roommate and I got settled into our room at the NASA Lodge. There is on base housing available for interns, which is super convenient and fun; there are tons of opportunities to meet other interns from around the country and the world! Our research group had several meetings today with our different supervisors and mentors: At noon, our research group met with Vahimir, a project coordinator for the product that we will all be working on (which I can't describe here because it's confidential). He talked to us about marketing and web design associated with the product, and how we can increase awareness of the product in the public sphere. Vahimir was very knowledgeable in terms of our project because he has been working with Dr. Cagle for a little over a year. After we got off of the video call with Vahimir, Dr. Cagle made her first appearance. Some of the interns who have already been here for...

Update: Today is the big day! Today will be my last day in East Hampton until August. My dad and I will be leaving this afternoon, as we will be staying in a hotel overnight. My flight is at 7:30 AM tomorrow, so we do not want to have to leave East Hampton at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning! I have never been so excited, or so tired from all the preparations 😴.  Wish me a safe flight tomorrow!