Education
NAMS supports NASA's education mission by fostering collaborations, outreach and students internships throughout the year.
Internship opportunities are available year-round. See a list of currently available internship opportunities.
The unique aspect of this program allows students to collaborate with scientists and engineers on-site at NASA or a hybrid version, where students work on their project at their university with faculty and at NASA Ames with a mentor over several months. The internship projects are designed with emphasis on learning, advancing research, and incorporating the research into graduate theses. A goal for each student is to present a poster and publish the findings with a NASA mentor. The students are given a full experience of collaboration in an R&D environment by participating in talks within the organization codes, tours of various research areas across NASA Ames, summer seminar series and presentations at the Education Poster session.
Internships are offered across technical disciplines of NAMS and closely tied to research and development aspects of the tasks. Student support is provided in a wide variety of ways, dependent on individual NAMS research task order objectives and student availability. The students’ education level can range from undergraduate to graduate degrees. The period of performance ranges from 12-week session to longer periods up to two (2) calendar years.
The students can be local or temporarily located at the NASA site or work from their remote university.
- Undergraduate and graduate students must be enrolled full-time in a degree-granting program at an accredited college or university.
- Full-time students (through graduate school)
- U.S. Citizen and/or valid visa
- 18 years of age at the time of application (no exceptions)
Student R&D internship opportunities are available in three general categories:
- Onsite: Internship at the NASA Site
- Virtual: Project-based engagement at a University Campus
- Hybrid: Part-Time Internship at NASA Site and Part-Time at University Campus (e.g., project-based courses with university credit during the school year plus summer internship at NASA site)
For more information on Student R&D internship opportunities, please email Christine Dillard, USRA-NAMS Student R&D Program Manager, at [email protected].
There are a wide range of technical research areas available for Student R&D internship opportunities.
- Advanced Technological Systems
- Aeroflight Dynamics
- Aerospace and Air Traffic Management
- Information Technology
- Science
For a complete listing of the research areas, please download the Student R&D Program datasheet.
NAMS research activities span the breadth of research conducted at NASA Ames. Some highlights of student research activities are listed below.
- Ph.D. Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- University of California, Berkeley
- Candidate, Masters of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
- Graduate Student
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
- Masters Student
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
- PhD Student
- University of California, Santa Cruz
Mentors who are interested in creating Student R&D internship opportunity, please see the mentor's page.