EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Approximately 20 96th Test Wing summer interns completed and presented their final projects covering a range of topics from insects, artificial intelligence, drones and chemotherapy August 2.
The interns, part of the Air Force’s Leadership Experience Growing Apprenticeships Committed to Youth Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medical partnership, presented their projects to the 96th TW executive director and other wing STEM partners.
“What an impressive group of young interns,” said Dale Marks. “I just witnessed 20 incredible students demonstrate a level of learning and doing that’s off the charts.”
This program could not see these results and the interns couldn’t reach their potential without Eglin’s engineers serving as mentors, according to Ron La Jeunesse, 96th Range Group.
“Team Eglin engineering professionals play a critical role in teaching, training, inspiring and vectoring the interns toward a successful career path,” he said.
Air Force Research Laboratory mentors guided intern, Milo Rasz, through complex concepts of manipulation of light properties, micro spectrophotometry and structural color, insect behavior and polarization.
Other AFRL mentors helped guide interns with the AI Star Tracker development and drone redesigns respectively.
The 96th RN mentors helped with more AI examinations, coding and robotics.
“The interns do the heavy lifting, but the STEM support team makes it all work,” said Elaine La Jeunesse, 96th TW K-12 STEM lead.
The Legacy program and Eglin STEM pipeline will soon gain another partner as the 96th TW stands up an engineering and technical management section serving Team Eglin’s science and engineering workforce needs.
For those interested in applying for the STEM LEGACY program or would like to be a mentor, call 850-882-4319.