Mentored, Unpaid Design Team Internship Experience

Abstract

An international team of 7 undergraduate interns working pro bono during the summer made significant advances in several areas of Space Solar Power. Distinct from a capstone design effort, this study group revived the practice common in the 1970s and 1980s of considering broad topics of high relevance to public citizens and elected decision-makers. Significant obstacles to success included lack of research experience, lack of motivating paycheck, and a highly-complex system under study. Each student was assigned a mentor from the aerospace industry or academia to guide the creation of a research plan, and to periodically review progress. Team-building exercises were conducted to develop relationships, and weekly team workshops were held to teach interoperability with other subsystems. Student experiences shifted from excitement at the outset to a sense of being overwhelmed with the magnitude and difficulties associated with a space-based project running in the tens of billions of dollars. Yet, each student was able to overcome such mid-term concerns, and to make a meaningful contribution to a key research question. Their results were published at a national space conference with all students listed as co-authors. The present work assesses the formation of such an unpaid team and the management thereof, analyzes the techniques used to encourage desired outcomes, and finishes with post-project follow-up on perceptions and career choices. This approach may find interest among professors with limited funds who seek to develop solid preliminary data to make grant applications more competitive.