Internship at Barrios Technology

Systems Engineering and Integration Intern

Daily tasks mostly consisted of the various work needed for my summer project. This was primarily self-lead and determined based on the project itself. My work was very systems engineering heavy, involving research and tool development for the requirements gathering, testing, and verification process. With this, there was also intern programming that included weekly communication workshops, lectures, and tours to help the intern cohort build communication skills, prepare for the final presentation, and gain as much exposure to NASA and subsequent connections as possible.

The main challenge that came up during the summer was simply starting my project. From the beginning, it wasn't very defined, so it was difficult to create a plan to complete the project when I wasn't sure where to start or what the end goal was. Eventually, it came down to me having the freedom to determine my tasks for myself based on research of the requirements process and how to potentially streamline it, but even with this, I wasn't fully clear on what was expected of me. I worked on talking to my team to figure out if they had any specific expectations or goals, but all in all, I wanted to make sure I was developing something that would actually be useful to the team, not just busywork to fill my time. I did end up developing a tool to parse documents for requirements, compare two sets, and create an interactive HTML for requirements matching to determine gaps between documents.

My summer project involved me learning an entirely new skill set. Through school, I've only ever taken a semester of MATLAB, whereas this project involved tool development in Python. While my project assignment was to use AI to aid in this development, I still had to learn the basics of Python and version control in Git to create something that can be improved on after my internship.

During this internship, I learned a lot about the requirements process and the general tasks of a systems engineer. This is where my project mostly took place, so I got hands-on experience through mentorships and research with how requirements are documented, tested, verified, and the potential inefficiencies within the process. With this, I also got exposure to the space industry as a whole. Through tours, networking, and other experiences, I was able to get a wider view of NASA operations, especially with the International Space Station.

This internship has proven to me that I want to work in the space industry after graduation.
I've realized that I really enjoy the payload integration side of ISS, which turns out to be directly related to my experiences in my school's aerospace club.
I really enjoyed the environment I got to work in over the summer, as well as all my coworkers. Being part of a cohort for this internship made the transition to living in Houston - however brief - much easier.
While my project was interesting, it's not necessarily something I'd want to continue working with. Coding and online tool development is not something I've had a lot of experience with, and I feel that my strengths can be better allocated elsewhere.
I love the mission of NASA with the human spaceflight program, and I hope to continue into this industry once I transition out of school!

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