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Education

NAMS supports NASA's education mission by fostering collaborations, outreach and students internships throughout the year.

Student R&D Program

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.

Internship Objectives

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.

Internship Requirements
  • U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident
  • 18 years of age at the time of application (no exceptions)
  • 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)
Student R&D Engagements

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].

Available Research Areas

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.

Student R&D Mentors

Mentors who are interested in creating Student R&D internship opportunity, please see the mentor's page.

Student Research Highlights

NAMS research activities span the breadth of research conducted at NASA Ames. Some highlights of student research activities are listed below.

Information Technology icon
Human Research Program Metrics Reporting and Financial Dashboards
Sara Glickman
Sara Glickman
  • Candidate, Masters of Human Factors
  • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • Mentors: Sandeep Shetye (NASA) and John Dunn (USRA)
Aerospace and Air Traffic Management icon
Optimization of sUAS Package Delivery Operations using k-Position Shift
Gautam Yarramreddy
Gautam Yarramreddy
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Data Science
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Mentors: Min Xue (NASA) and Priyank Pradeep (USRA)
Aerospace and Air Traffic Management icons
Predicting System-level Delay Characteristics of Air Traffic Networks using Geometric Deep Learning
Annie Lee
Annie Lee
  • Candidate, Bachelors
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Mentor: Jeremy Coupe (NASA)
Advanced Technological Systems icon
Distributed Quantum Algorithms
Phillip Kerger
Phillip Kerger
  • Candidate, PhD in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Mentors: Eleanor Rieffel (NASA) and David Bernal Neira (USRA)
Advanced Technological Systems icon
Optimization of sUAS Package Delivery Operations using k-Position Shift
Nicholas Amirsoleimani
Nicholas Amirsoleimani
  • Master's degree in Statistics
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Mentors: Min Xue (NASA) and Priyank Pradeep (USRA)
Aeroflightdynamics icon
Aircraft Emission Climate Science Modeling
Liam Thirtyacre
Liam Thirtyacre
  • Candidate, Masters of Mechanical Engineering
  • Boston University
  • Mentors: Kouskik Datta (NASA) and Tom Oda (USRA)
Aerospace and Air Traffic Management icon
NASA's Air Traffic Management - eXploration (ATM-X)
Tanav Ohal
Tanav Ohal
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
  • San José State University
  • Mentors: Savita Verma (NASA) and Kushal Moolchandari (USRA)
Aeroflightdynamics icon
Operations and Maintenance of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel Test Facilities
Esthefani Montelon
Esthefani Montelon
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
  • San José State University
  • Mentor: Ross Flach (NASA)
Advanced Technological Systems icon
Project: Implementing DELTA for Flood Modeling
Alayasia Thomas
Alayasia Thomas
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Computer Engineering
  • Hampton University
  • Mentors: Subhash Saini (NASA), David Bell (USRA), Apoorva Shastry (USRA)
Advanced Technological Systems icon
Benchmarking the Potential for Quantum Advantage of Variational Quantum Eigensolver against Classical Tensor-Network Based Algorithms (Density Matrix Renormalization Group) in the Kitaev Square-Octagon Model
Robin Brown
Robin Brown
  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Stanford University
  • Mentors: Eleanor Rieffel (NASA) and David Bernal (USRA)
Science icon
Transfer Learning of ExoMiner for TESS
Hongbo Wei
Hongbo Wei
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Mentors: Hamed Valizadegan (USRA) and Miguel Saragoca Martinho (USRA)
Science icon
Investigation Supergranulation Properties over Solar Activity Cycles
Emma Opper
Emma Opper
  • Candidate, Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics with a minor in physics
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Mentor: Irina Kitiashvili (NASA)