Research

Time Commitment: 40 hours/week, 10 weeks

During my internship, I had the opportunity to prove my ability to work independently on a complex engineering design challenge. My task was to reconstruct a previous reactor design and evaluate it for defects or oversights. The reconstruction phase took about three weeks before the testing phase began. I experimented with various inert solvents and solutes to determine ease of aerosol generation, a primary step in the reactor design. In my short amount of time I was unable to proceed any further, but my findings allowed me to propose modifications to the design which are currently being investigated by Indian Head employees. 

My research at Indian Head ties directly into my grand challenge because propellant is a key component in a wide variety of aerospace technologies such as safety features and engines in air planes and rockets. Better propellants allow for more efficient and economic use of a given technology, thus making operation more feasible and attractive to potential investors. As space exploration companies forge new methods to venture beyond our world, the potential for discovery increases with better propulsion technologies. This experience definitely helped me figure out my interests and potential career options. Though I do not wish to work in a chemistry laboratory, my exposure to aerospace technologies at Indian Head guided my search for future career paths. 

Meeting the Program Learning Objectives

Each week, I exhibited integrity and persistence by writing a list of goals and sharing them with my mentor. This was a great opportunity to display accountability and follow-through, as I always met my goals, regardless of any issues I may have encountered. Perspective and teamwork go hand-in-hand because as an intern I needed to be able to both learn chemistry skills from my co-workers and share my unique engineering skills. To do so I needed to think about problems from different perspectives and interact with co-workers professionally. Maintaining a realistic vision and showing flexibility allowed me to work on a long-term project that had many changes to the constraints over time. I hoped to meet certain goals, so I needed to set realistic benchmarks and adapt my previous work to encompass any changes.

Meeting the Research Learning Objectives

Communication and ethical conduct played a large part in my interactions with my coworkers at Indian Head. It was important that meetings were concise and effective in order to best explain my ideas while being respectful of seniority and rules of classification. A great deal of my project relied on my ability to connect facts I learned on the job to concepts I had learned in school, which required creativity and disciplinary knowledge. In addition, my understanding of the fundamental concepts allowed me to be more experimental in my approach and also incorporate the knowledge and perspective of my chemist mentor. Inquiry, intellectual development, and critical thinking were the corner stones of this experience. My success depended on my ability to properly form and test various hypotheses and apply theory I learned in school in a real-world context.