News

Four students from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering have earned prestigious internships from the Air Force Research Laboratory.

With a staff of roughly 4,200 civilian and 1,200 military employees, the AFRL is the scientific research and development lab for the U.S. Air Force, with a multi-billion dollar yearly budget. The four students are Britney Rogers, Paul Novoa, Arturo de la Barcena and Nicholas Tijerina.

We asked all four students to provide us with a short statement about earning this honor, which can be read below.

"For the AFRL internship, it has been a very crucial stepping-stone in my career that pushed me to think beyond just academic applications. It has given me a tangible relationship and a sense of purpose to know my work contributes to the advancement and understanding of control systems in the aerospace industry. It has fueled my passion even more and would like to thank Dr. Karolos Grigoriadis, my graduate mentor, and Dr. Edwin Forster, my AFRL mentor, for this amazing opportunity to work as an ARCTOS employee in Dayton OH via the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Minority Leaders – Research Collaboration Program (ML-RCP)." — Nicholas Tijerina.

"I feel honored to have been recognized by so many talented people, both my professors and my colleagues at the AFRL, and grateful for all of the opportunities that the Minority Leaders - Research Collaboration Program (ML-RCP) has offered me. Before I took this same internship last summer, I didn't really consider going to graduate school. But now that I have been exposed to so much awesome research work, I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else." — Arturo de la Barcena.

"I really appreciate the opportunity to come all the way to WPAFB to work with the AFRL. Last summer's research I worked on opened the door to my thesis topic of the comparison of different modern controllers with safety assurance techniques for comparison for spacecraft maneuvers, which I am in the final stages of currently. This year's topic has proven to be just as interesting to me and I am happy for the ability to do research once again with the same section. It's a real blessing." — Britney Rogers.

"I am very happy to have been sent up to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to work at AFRL for the summer. I have been learning a ton and have developed a strong interest in aerospace engineering while living in the city where it all started with the Wright brothers. We have formed a good group of interns here and, so far, it has been really fun. In addition, AFRL is taking me to Las Vegas for the AIAA AVIATION Conference, which I am very excited about." — Paul Novoa.