CANBERRA, Australia – Jan. 13, 2015 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the Australian National University (ANU) today announced that four Australian college students are completing externships that will develop professional skills and expand their understanding of adaptive optics and astronomy CubeSat missions, important elements of successful space endeavors.
Of the four students in the program, three attend the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology: Laila Sezin (aerospace engineering), Shatirsingh (Ishraj) Inderjeet (aerospace engineering) and Eilliot Thorn (mechanical engineering). The fourth, Matthew Vella, recently graduated from the University of Sydney with an aeronautical engineering degree.
"The ANU Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC) is thrilled to partner with Northrop Grumman to expand access to its summer undergraduate program," said Naomi Mathers, industry liaison engineer, ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "Northrop Grumman's support makes it possible for students to take advantage of the facilities and expertise at the AITC. Together, we are giving our best and brightest the hands-on experience they need to prepare them for industry."
"We are delighted to provide these scholarships and give the students access to Northrop Grumman space experts in Australia and the U.S.," said Ian Irving, chief executive for Northrop Grumman Australia. "Australia has a growing and exciting space industry and as part of strong support to science, technology, engineering and math in Australia, we hope that these students will receive the tools to be become future leaders in the industry."
The externs are doing defined research projects, working in teams and producing deliverables in adaptive optics systems, which brings together optics, engineering, material science and computer science to develop integrated systems that correct for optical distortion in almost real time. They are also participating in astronomy missions for CubeSats that will include developing the background documentation for a workshop to define an astronomy CubeSat mission and preliminary design of the mission architecture and satellite. They will complete their externships later this month.
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