Vetri Vijay of Michigan State University did not know what to expect when applying for a NASA internship.
“Obviously, NASA is an incredible place to possibly work at,” said the computer science senior. “Back in November, I was doing a lot of research for summer internships, and it was just one of the places I applied to.”
The interview process involved three rounds, he said. First was a resume review. Then, a personality test, and the final round involved testing on his understanding of C++, a programming language.
“They gave me a mock question. How would you set up a car, for example, where you have four motors and you have these sensors? How do you write code to make it autonomous,” Vijay remarked.
After a thorough process, Vijay was thrilled to find that he had been accepted to work on the research project: Autonomous Rover Navigation and Mapping on Lunar Surface Training Ground.
His internship began in January at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He tests lunar rover activities and software, developing them for future autonomous deployment in space.
“My day-to-day is working in a lab,” Vijay explained. “This lab has a bunch of rovers that are programmable. I’m a software engineer so I sit at a computer, drive the rover around and collect data from the sensors.”
Vijay’s interest in autonomous vehicles comes from his prior extracurricular activities. He began working on rudimentary autonomous vehicle programming for the Troy Robotics Club in high school and continued in college as a member of the MSU Solar Racing Team. Vijay noted the importance of working with autonomous vehicles is largely related to safety.
“It is going to be much safer to be in autonomous vehicles and to not have human error get in the way of driving,” he said.
While the internship offers Vijay an incredibly unique experience as an undergraduate, it comes with a level of pressure. “Everything is really high risk and somewhat secretive,” Vijay said. “These robots are pretty expensive. If we mess up, that’s a financial loss. If we mess up and don’t catch it, it can lead to something going wrong in space.”
Despite the risks, Vijay is excited to be working with space technology. “It is incredible that I’m working on technology that is going to be used in space in the future. I’m writing code for a robot that is going somewhere in the universe that is not Earth.”
Vijay, who graduates in 2024, is hoping to return to NASA or his previous internship. “I’m not sure if I want to do more robotics. I can also do machine-learning AI or I can do software engineering at a big tech company,” he said.
“What I’ve really learned from this internship is how to use external resources and not rely on other people to get my work done,” he explained. “In college, if you have a question, you can ask a professor but I’m doing work that someone can not help me with. I’ve learned how to use the internet or external resources so that when I have a problem, I can actually solve it eventually.”
Written by Lia Bergin, student writer in MSU Engineering Marketing and Communications.