GVIS Students

The GVIS Lab hosts several college and high school interns throughout the year, giving motivated students the chance to develop their skills while working on real-world NASA projects. Areas of work include 3D modeling, 2D graphic design, programming, virtual and augmented reality development, communications and more.

Fall 2023 Interns

Kilian Olen

Kilian Olen is an undergraduate honors student, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, pursuing two degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics. His concentrations lie in Astronautics and Spacecraft Systems, and he has two declared minors being Applied Mathematics and Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing. Throughout his studies, he has cultivated a deep fascination with bio-inspired robotics and space exploration, and is committed to advance these disciplines in his graduate studies.

Kilian’s planned tasks are to support the development of concept vehicles by designing 3D models and animations of electric aircraft concept designs and hardware prototypes.

During the school year, Kilian serves as an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Aroh Barjatya at the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab and as an engineering tutor at the Academic Advancement Center. Outside of academics, he enjoy playing soccer, studying biology, improving his French, and exploring different mediums in art.

Lauren Leese

Lauren Leese is a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she double majored in English and astronomy. Her background in astrophysics research and in a wide variety of writing disciplines unlocked her passion for communicating science in a clear and accessible way. As a communications and outreach intern focused on AI and machine learning efforts at NASA, she curates and creates content for the NASA AIML site, and will assist in launching a public site to highlight NASA projects that leverage AI for the benefit of all. She also assists with displays at GVIS Lab outreach events. As a competitive swammer (that is, past tense of competitive swimmer), Lauren enjoys time in the pool and staying active. She also likes reading and writing science fiction and fantasy novels, playing the guitar, and collecting space-themed mugs

Chase Leidy

Chase Leidy is a CGI Graphics Intern under the SCaN department at Glenn Research Center where he works in the GVIS lab. Chase recently received his BFA in Animation from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio where he developed his passion for computer graphics by watching cinema and enjoying video games. Chase specializes in visual effects. He spends much of his time outside of the office expanding his skills in using industry standard programs for visual effects and simulations. For the summer and fall semesters of 2023, Chase has been tasked with completing 3D productions of SCaN missions, such as Lunar LiTES and Cognitive Communications. When Chase isn’t focusing on his profession, he enjoys socializing with other interns and going on hikes, especially while traveling.

Allison Tee

Allison Tee is a student at Stanford University studying mathematics and music with a coterm Master’s in computer science. Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Allison’s journey now leads them to the forefront of cutting-edge technology. Currently, as an intern in the realm of machine learning engineering, Allison is immersed in the world of retrieval-augmented generation, harnessing the power of GPT-4 for the Periodic Table of Life (PeTaL) project. Beyond their academic pursuits, Allison enjoys playing the piano, video gaming, and exercising. Additionally, they like the smell of durian more than the actual taste and grows Carolina Reapers.

Anna Nguyen

Anna Nguyen is a third year student at San Diego State University studying computer science. As the Outreach Support for Scientific Computing Visualization Lab intern, she is working on updating the GVIS website with additional and updated projects and events, and all of GVIS’ social media. She is also tasked to enhance the Astrosuit visualization by updating the project settings to support de-facto standard GVIS build settings, clean up project asset organization to move custom assets into their own folders, update the project to the latest release of Unity and the Kinect plug that is used for motion capture, and add keystrokes for switching between different suits and to “reset” the app so it can see new people in the view. In Anna’s free time, she enjoys swimming, skating, and socializing with her friends.

Aiden McDougal

Aiden McDougal is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati studying Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Astrophysics. Aiden is currently working to improve the flight simulation as well as systems integration for the SUSAN project. Outside of work, Aiden is completing training for his Private Pilot Certificate. He has experience in software development, 3D modeling, and manufacturing processes. In his free time, Aiden enjoys weightlifting, app development, and the outdoors.

Matthew Bigge

Matthew Bigge is a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with degrees in Computer Science (BS, Spring 2023) and Music (BA, Summer 2023). He is currently working in the GVIS lab producing AR/VR visualizations for the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) Project. In his time in university, Matthew was a member of various clubs and organizations such as the Cornhusker Marching Band and UNL Quiz Bowl Club. The most important to him was his involvement with Research, Engineering, and Design (RED) Teams at UNL. In this group, Matthew was able to get experience working with NASA by participating in the MicroG NeXT and SUITS challenges. These projects allowed him to travel to Houston to test their work onsite with NASA engineers and develop the skills in both mechanical and software design/production. In his free time, Matthew loves playing jazz and classical music on his trumpet. He has worked in his university’s makerspace for 3 years and loves woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing and more that lets him make his own things like furniture.

Chetna Agarwal

Chetna Agarwal is a student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, pursuing a master’s at Stevens Institute of Technology. She is majoring in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning. She was brought up in India and moved to America a year ago. This is her second internship with the GVIS lab at NASA Glenn Research Center. During the summer months, she worked on the creation of a biomimicry discord bot that takes inspiration from biological models to give solutions to various engineering problems. This project involved the use of large language models and prompt engineering. Currently, she is working on a project utilizing AI techniques to design novel protein structures with specific properties. Apart from the technical aspects of her projects, she is also actively involved in other activities as part of her internship like helping out with outreach events and giving talks/demos about her work. In her leisure hours, Chetna is a bookworm with a particular passion for mystery novels. Agatha Christie is her favorite author in this genre. She also finds immense joy in exploring new places, embarking on hikes and bike rides, and engaging in meditation. Coffee is a must for her in the mornings before she can start coding!

Archive

Visit our archive of past interns!

Unofficial Intern Guide

Visit our Unofficial Intern Guide!

Contact Us!

Need to reach us? You can directly send an email to the GVIS Team GRC-DL-GVIS@mail.nasa.gov or the Team Leader, Herb Schilling hschilling@nasa.gov

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