|
Mechanical engineering senior Kyle Palmiscno says interning at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is out of this world.
Palmiscno took enough advanced placement classes in high school that he was able to get right into his engineering curriculum at UND. This semester, he is at NASA’s Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for 10 weeks.
“I was alerted to the opportunity of that internship by (UND aerospace engineer) Pablo de Leon.
“When you apply for the NASA summer internships, they match up your skills and interests with a specific project,” Palmiscno notes. “The project I am working on is the actually the water recovery system. It takes moisture from the air, water used for cleaning and hygiene and pretreated urine and converts it to potable water.”
“This system is one that could be used on both the ISS and the exploration vehicle,” Palmiscno explains.
At the end of the 10-week internship, Palmiscno and the other students involved in the project will have to make a final project presentation.
“It’s sort of a wrap-up to our summer,” Palmiscno says. “The internship, paid for by the NASA-funded North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, is worth $5000 plus travel. I’ll be living in an apartment complex at the University of Alabama Huntsville and sharing a room with an intern from Oklahoma State University and another from Mississippi State University.”
This NASA opportunity is a key part of his dream of working hands-on in the aerospace sector. Palmiscno has long wanted to be an aerospace engineer, like de Leon, who is one of his mentors.
“It’s something I’ve always really wanted to do,” says Palmiscno, who’s setting a nearly perfect 3.989 GPA and a summa cum laude diploma. “I even thought about majoring in it at University of Minnesota, but I learned from folks at NASA and other aerospace professionals that a broader background in mechanical engineering would probably serve me better in the long run because of the cyclical nature of the aerospace industry.”
Palmiscno, who graduates in May 2008, was part of a volunteer crew of students who worked with de Leon in the Department of Space studies to build a space capsule simulator—complete with a full array of instrumentation.
“I’d like to go to grad school to get into a more specific area in engineering,” he says. “The four-year degree is good basis, but if you want to specialize, for example in aerospace, you need the kind of background that you get in a graduate engineering program.”
“I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to work in various engineering internships and at the UND Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC), where I do drafting for their engineering support services,” Palmiscno says. “It’s helped me a lot because it’s real-world engineering work, and that’s a lot different than school. You see more of how things go in the real world, and I’ve learned to work with the people in the shop who have to actually fabricate everything. I’ve also learned real-world project and organization skills.”
Palmiscno’s dad is a retired school teacher who has owned a roofing business on the side.
“I worked for my dad for six years, roofing in the summer time, mostly residential, plus other construction,” he says. “We also helped to build a small lake home for someone. So I’ve gained a number of skills that support my engineering interests.”
“I really like our (mechanical engineering) department,” Palmiscno says. “We’re all pretty close with all of our profs. For example, this past winter and fall, I applied for 10 different scholarship and internships, and my profs were willing to write letters of recommendation for all those applications. I think our profs will do just about anything students need to help them succeed. That’s a terrific plus here.”
“My choice of school came down to UND or the University of Minnesota, which has an aerospace major,” Palmiscno explains. “It came down to scholarships—it made a lot more sense as a North Dakota high school graduate to go to UND because of the availability of scholarships. Yeah, definitely, the scholarships were a major factor in my choice to come to UND.”
|
