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Summer Interns - 2012

Back row (left to right): Jeffrey Linahan, Thomas Voden (he's standing just behind & between Linahan and Tsotsos), Konstantine Tsotsos, Justin Koch, Solomon Chang, Kevin Burg, Paul Johnson, Donald Ruffatto, Ross Allen, Ryan Houlihan, Alessandro Balossino, Isaac Kim, Charles Galey, Kevin Witkoe, Jeremy Laflin, Joseph Bartels, David Connolly.

Front Row (left to right): Esther Lee, Tam Nguyen, Archan Luhar, Grace Tilton, Dorian Tsai, Luca Randazzo, Nitish Thatte, Phillip Daniel, Alberto Pignato, Billy Gallagher, Rory Shevin, Eduardo Almeida, Randolph Voorhies.

Not pictured: Riley Avron, Luis Bill-Clark, Pronoy Biswas, Diego Capporale,Thimal De Alwis, Matthew Dughi, Jeffrey Edlund, Joshua Fromm, Nikola Georgiev, Hima Gudipati, Kristen Holtz, Ryan Houlihan, Yifei Huang, Paul Johnson, Brandon Jones, Justin Koch, Donald Ruffatto, Krishna Shankar, Sean Sharma, Melissa Tanner

Name Home Institution Program Point of Contact Task Name
Riley Avron Purdue University JPL Summer Space Grant Program Matthew Heverly Scarecrow Controller MSL
Activity: Characterized and tested limb mounted F/T sensors & created a motor/joint testbed.
Joseph Bartels Univ. of Nebraska - Lincoln JPL Summer Space Grant Program Frost/McQuinn Lunar Surface Mobility
Activity: Improved the design of the counter rotating auger. Designed electronics for geophone soft regolith anchor.
Luis Bill-Clark Caltech Caltech SURF Michael Wolfe Bioelectric Sensor
Activity: Assisted in the hardware development, software programming, and testing of JPLs "BioSleeve."
Pronoy Biswas CMU Space Grant Hari Nayar Safe & Precise EDL
Activity: Worked on lander vision system test and evaluation under MTP LVS project.
Kevin Burg Carnegie Mellon University JPL Summer Space Grant Program Michael McHenry Aerial Processing
Activity: Developed soil sampling device for Axel.
Diego Capporale Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Analyzed different designs that would enable Ackerman steering for the DuAxel rover.
Solomon Chang San Marino High School Caltech SURF Jeng Yen Phase E IPE Surface
Activity: Developed and demonstrated high fidelity simulation method for MSL mission.
David Connolly Boise State University JPL Summer Space Grant Program Chris McQuin Lunar Surface Mobility
Activity: Designed new prototype anchors for various environments ie asteroids & add deployable geophones to the existing auger anchor prototypes.
Phillip Daniel MIT SURF Aaron Parness Robot Reconnaissance
Activity: Intern worked on gripping mechanisms that use gecko-inspired adhesives.
Thimal De Alwis Caltech Caltech Workstudy Paulo Younse Sample Tube Sealing
Activity: Supported design, analysis, build, and test of various sample sealing techniques applicable to sample tube sealing for a Mars Sample Return mission.
Matthew Dughi Caltech JPL Summer Internship Program Bob Balaram Real-Time High Fidelity
Activity: Development of an autonomous HMMV vehicle model using the ROAMS rover simulation software.
Jeffrey Edlund Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Developed soil sampling device for Axel.
Joshua Fromm MIT JPL Summer Space Grant Program Michael Wolfe Bioelectric Sensor
Activity: Assisted in the hardware development, software programming, and testing of JPLs "BioSleeve."
Charles Galey Univ. Michigan JPL Summer Internship Program Eric Kulczycki MSR-L Orbital Sample
Activity: Intern helped in the design of enabling technology for the Mars Sample Return mission. This involved designing hardware and mechanisms, prototyping, and testing.
William (Billy) Gallagher Georgia Tech JPL Summer Space Grant Program Paul Backes Small Body Sampling
Activity: Designed and built passive comet sampling tool.
Nikola Z. Georgiev Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Designed and implemented a multi-sample scooping and caching device that could be integrated into Axel's science bays.
Hima Gudipati Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Designed and implemented based on COTS parts a percussive scooping device that was demonstrated on a ice/soil mixture.
Kristen Holtz Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Worked to design, analyze and build a pneumatic-based sampling and caching device for the Axel rover.
Ryan Houlihan Temple University JPL Summer Space Grant Proram Rudra Mukherjee Terrain ontology modeling
Activity: Granular Media Marketing and Software Development.
Yifei Huang Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Worked to design, analyze and build a pneumatic-based sampling and caching device for the Axel rover.
Paul Johnson Univ. North Dakota JPL Summer Space Grant Program Dimitri Zarzhitsky Extreme Terrain
Activity: Characterized bandwidth, latency, and range of COTS 802.11g/n USB WiFi adapters using the embedded Linux OS on the Axel extreme terrain rover.
Brandon Jones Cornell JPL Summer Internship Program Curtis Padgett Blue Devil
Activity: We are developing automated mapping routines from aerial imagery to support navigation. The project involves the fully automated generation of navigation landmarks from aerial imagery. This involves detection of landmarks, derivation of their position using onboard instruments or telemetry and providing sufficient context for reacquisition in new imagery.
Isaac Kim Caltech JPL Summer Space Grant Program Rudra Mukherjee Terrain ontology modeling
Activity: Granular Media Marketing and Software Development.
Jonathan King Ohio State Univ. Caltech SURF Aaron Parness Gripping Foot Mech
Activity: Intern continued his work on building a coring drill that interfaces with the microspine gripper.
Justin Koch Caltech Caltech SURF John Leichty Lunar Surface Mobil
Activity: Designed a motor driver "bottonbox" and tested apparatus, and used it to characterize torque sensing in robotic actuators.
Jeremy Laflin RPI JPL Summer Space Grant Program Rudra Mukherjee Terrain ontology modeling
Activity: Granular Media Marketing and Software Development.
Esther Lee Rutgers University JPL Summer Space Grant Program Aaron Parness Robot Reconnaissance
Activity: Intern worked on tail designs for bracing that can be used to mount curbs and climb vertical walls.
Archan Luhar Caltech Caltech SURF John Leighty Icy Worlds
Activity: Assisted with design and fabrication of an aerial photography platform for Alaskan lake survey. Performed data analysis of sample images to identify methane seeps.
Sheila Murthy Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Studied anchor designs for the Axel's central and conducted a set of experiments.
Donald Ruffatto Illinois Institute of Technology NASA Space Tech Fellow Aaron Parness Adhesive
Activity: The student worked on hybrid electrostatic/gecko adhesives and developed a test setup for quantitative data acquisition at cold temperatures (-90C).
Krishna Shankar Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: Developed a control strategy that would enable motion planning with tether management.
Sean Sharma Santa Monica Space Grant Curtis Padgett Blue Devil
Activity: Testing on Blue Devil.
Rory Shevin Caltech Space Grant Paul Backes Small Body Sampling
Activity: Designed and built passive comet sampling tool.
Melissa Tanner Caltech Caltech SURF Issa Nesnas Axel
Activity: For the ONR Sensor Fusion task, developed a multi-sensor data collection system, performed software development, performed perception system integration on board a SPAWAR vehicle, and performed data collections and field testing.
Nitish Thatte CMU/Rutgers Summer Internship Program Aaron Parness Gripping Foot Mechanism
Activity: Prototype sensing methods for existing microspine grippers.
Grace Tilton RPI JPL Summer Space Grant Program Bob Balaram DIO LSOS Configuration
Activity: Development of an autonomous HMMV vehicle model using the ROAMS rover simulation software.
Konstantine Tsotsos USC JPL Year Round Internship program Roland Brockers Quadrotor ISR
Activity: Support algorithum development for state estimation for UAV operation.
Rand Voorhies UCLA JPL Summer Internship Program Roland Brockers Quadrotor ISR
Activity: System inegration for UAV obstacle avoidance.
Kevin Witkoe Idaho University JPL Summer Space Grant Program Aaron Parness Gripping Foot Mech
Activity: Worked on prototype sensors for the LEMUR robot and assisted in climbing experiments.