What are the current goals of your project?

With most of the work toward my original deliverables already complete, I plan to spend the second half of the internship on my personally assigned projects. The creation of calculator demos was actually suggested by me after doing some initial research in the first two weeks. I found a better way to run the backend of our simulators, which I plan to use to convert all of the remaining calculators on the site.

I was also recently assigned to a team for a collegiate design challenge held by NASA for interns, which involves designing and prototyping a small cleaning robot meant to operate in zero gravity environments. That work will be completed over the next 4 weeks, along with several of the other interns in my office. Of course, any more page migration or implementation of already completed work after review will also be necessary, and I hope to have several new sections of the website complete and published before my time here is finished.

What accomplishments has your project made so far?

Throughout my five weeks at NASA so far this summer, I have accomplished a number of tasks focused on the migration and further development of the public Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics website maintained by GRC. My project outline focused on three main tasks: the conversion of equations from text / HTML format to LaTeX, the migration of the Guide to Hypersonics page, and the creation and presentation of a new calculator.

While the first two weeks of my internship were spent mainly completing orientation assignments and waiting for admin access to the website, I was still able to view the public side of the site, creating several organized sheets of information for later use. During the third week, I completed several small updates based on user error submission forms, and was granted admin access to both the main site and a training site to use as a personal sandbox. I used the training site a significant amount in the fourth week, during which I completed a number of my original deliverables. I drafted and fully completed the calculator demo early in the week, sending it off for review shortly afterward. I then created over 100 pages of LaTeX equations in the training site to use for comparison to the main site and easy integration once they have been reviewed. This, along with several pages I updated without review, finished almost all of the work toward my first deliverable.

I ended the fifth week by finishing the migration of the Hypersonics page, my final deliverable, and completing reviews of another two sections of the site, making this my most productive week by far. Most recently, during the fifth week, I began work on converting more calculators, which should be completed within the next two weeks.

What impact has this internship had so far?

So far, this internship has been a unique look into the operations that keep large public sites up and running. Web development was one of several topics I was interested in after beginning a computer science minor, and working on the BGA website has given me a much more in-depth guide on using various tools, including site plugins and even methods of team communication. Additionally, much of the information I spend my time converting from one format to another ties directly into content I am currently learning in my aerospace classes in college, making my work feel much more relevant to my current education.

Outside of the actual assigned work I have been completing for the internship, I have also toured several of the other buildings and research facilities on site, giving me a better idea of what exactly I want to pursue in the future. Being able to talk face-to-face with professionals during their everyday work schedules is rare, and being surrounded by experts in their fields makes learning about their everyday work that much more enjoyable. This internship provides a glimpse at what NASA actually accomplishes on a day-to-day basis, and definitely has me looking forward to my future work in the aerospace industry.