Always ask questions and never feel bad about it. People at your internship love to see that you are eager to learn and not be afraid to ask for help whether it's your teammates or your supervisor. Finally, cultivate a spirit of excellence and always ask for feedback.
Name: Sokhna Mbacke (Cohort 10)
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Nuclear Engineering
What Community College did you transfer to the University of Maryland from?
Prince George’s Community College
Why did you decide to attend the University of Maryland and the A. James Clark School of Engineering?
I chose UMD because it is close to home and has one of the best engineering schools in the U.S. The A. James Clark School of Engineering has lots of clubs, resources and opportunities that I was very interested in, particularly the Women in Engineering program. I think it is a great support system and motivation to women in such a male dominated field like engineering.
Give a brief description of your main roles and responsibilities during your internship.
As an intern, my role was to conduct wing research as well as computationally design, develop, and analyze wing designs that use bell shaped lift distributions. My team and I automated the adjustment of lift and chord for a Boeing jet plane using MATLAB and Open Vehicle Sketch Pad to achieve that bell lift distribution. The main purpose of that was to be able to reduce aircraft induced drag which could not only reduce fuel consumption cost for companies but also have greater impacts on the environment.
How did you find the internship/co-op? What was the interview process like? What advice do you have for students in their search process?
It was all thanks to my Physics professor at my community college (PGCC), Neeharika Thakur, and the NASA MUREP Curriculum Awards (MCA) grant, of which she is the Principal Investigator. Professor Thakur helped not only me but many students to apply to the NASA internship opportunities going on that semester and was constantly following up and making sure we were in a good spot to get selected (revising resumés, essays, etc.). The interview process was smooth and not difficult at all thanks to the mentoring of my professor but also my great internship mentor. One piece of advice I have for students in their search process would be to prioritize networking especially with your professors, ask questions (always), and be eager to learn genuinely not only to have good grades but to acquire great knowledge in order to better this world.
How was your engineering education relevant to your internship?
I actually got to apply a lot of my engineering education courses and most of the things in some of my courses I learned started to make more sense.
How has the internship experience changed or contributed to your academic or career goals?
My internship definitely put me in a spot to have a glimpse of what the engineering professional environment looks like for the most part. I improved my MATLAB skills and learned new skills such as Open Vehicle Sketch Pad (OpenVSP). I also learned the importance of asking for feedback to get better and not repeat the same mistakes.
Top