Students participate in RISE physics internship

Hopkins, one of the oldest research universities in the U.S., offers students a range of different research opportunities. 

Recently, 33 Hopkins students t the program Research Internships in Science and Engineering at the Applied Physics Laboratory or RISE@APL.

The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), a division of the University, was founded in 1942.

Today the APL houses 6,000 scientists that work with the government on national security research projects like weapons development and to explore the frontiers of space, while also maintaining independent research and development projects.

Jerry Krill, the assistant director for science and technology and the chief technology officer at the APL, elaborated on the scope of the projects tackled by the APL.

“We don’t just do research; we do large scale engineering, and we will take something that’s theoretical or an idea, and we’re not satisfied until we’ve prototyped it and made it work,” Krill said.

He also explained that RISE@APL is a fairly new program, born from the merging of previous APL internship programs.

The APL provides summer internships for nearly 300 students from around 100 universities, but RISE@APL is a special program designed specifically for Hopkins students.

“The APL looks across the nation for talented people to hire,” Krill said.

“But Hopkins is special. We’re part of the family, and Hopkins students are really amazing.”

Over summer, RISE@APL interns were given the opportunity to work closely with an APL researcher. As mentors, their main goal is to help the students learn and to give them guidance, but Kara Shipley, a RISE@APL mentor, explains that it’s much more than that.

“My goal is... to be able to learn from the intern. Seeing how they interpret things through their eyes, it actually opens it up for me to see how we could approach the... project a little differently, [since it is] something I wouldn’t have thought of before,” Shipley said in an interview.

According to Krill, being a RISE@APL mentor isn’t just about providing students a unique opportunity to learn, but also about the chance to collaborate with new minds and understand different perspectives.

On Oct. 16, six of the 33 RISE@APL students gathered at the Glass Pavilion to present their research.

These students (junior Brandon Duderstadt, senior Geordan Gutow, junior Zanir Habib, junior Sarah Denenberg, senior Nathan McIntosh and senior Matthew Heacock) created posters that culminated all their research from the summer.

Their projects were diverse, covering topics like devices that could track a person in a large crowd to Phased-Array Doppler Sonar to hacking a drone.

Heacock, who is majoring in mechanical engineering, spent the summer compiling data from argo float devices in the ocean and computing the numbers into easily accessible and usable data for scientists.

“Doing the APL internship was very insightful into what the actual engineering workplace looked like. It was interesting, because it’s not what you expect: It takes a step back, and you’re like, wow, [with] real engineering, you need to sit down and do the behind the scenes work,” Heacock said.

Before RISE@APL, Heacock wasn’t sure what his chosen career path really looked like, but now he has a much greater understanding and is excited to continue in mechanical engineering.

Denenberg, who is studying computer engineering, created a device that could test the waveforms emitted from another device being built at APL. Her device acted as a preliminary check to make sure the other APL device was working properly before being sent off for expensive government testing.

Denenberg said that the internship gave her a chance to explore her field in a way she couldn’t in a classroom.

“I wanted something where I could use electrical engineering theory and computer science coding; this gave me that. This was different from my school work in that it was using stuff I learned, but it wasn’t just one sided,” Denenberg said.

McIntosh is a mechanical engineering major. He conducted research in generating codes and creating a user manual for low-thrust space navigation vehicles.

While working with RISE@APL, McIntosh was able to work with other interns from various technical backgrounds to create an entire space mission, and he discovered that he would like to pursue a career in the space sector.

When asked about his experience with RISE@APL, McIntosh said he found it extremely valuable.

“It’s a way to experience truly ground-breaking work that’s happening in the field... getting to work on this kind of stuff is something that’s really hard to do if you don’t have these sorts of opportunities,” McIntosh said.

According to Krill, RISE@APL offers Hopkins students the opportunity to work with distinguished researchers and on some of the most unique projects in the nation.

“If I... could roll back the clock, I would love to be a student in the Whiting School or Krieger and have an opportunity to go to APL, to just see how the biggest problems in the world are handled,” Krill said.