ACCELERATED LEARNING — Space Jam, the winning team composed of mechanical, chemical and civil engineering students, focused on the tracking of acceleration and elevation of a switch, which is important in detecting malfunctions during flight missions. Space Jam team members, from left, included Kaleb Crawford, Kendall Seveor, Donald Okonkwo, Trinity Wiley and Chelsea Guidry. (Photo courtesy of Breanna Gallegos-Schnedar)
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Dec. 1, 2023) – Thirteen internships at two Sandia sites have resulted in transformative experiences for Prairie View A&M University students. The opportunities delivered firsthand experience of how these students could benefit the nation through their chosen career fields.
The interns worked at one of the Sandia locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California, in jobs aligning with their degrees, backgrounds and interest areas. While the students were embedded in diverse areas such as supply chain, electrical design, generation systems, cybersecurity, nuclear deterrence project management and systems surety engineering, they each gained an appreciation for how effective communications, teamwork and problem-solving skills impact success.
Toya Acharya is one of PVAMU’s doctoral students contributing full-time to Sandia’s mission of reducing national security risks. As a year-round graduate intern in Strategic Cyber Initiatives, Acharya partners with a team of computer scientists seeking to mitigate attacks on U.S. enterprise security and critical infrastructure. Through his work on the “TreeClock” project, he develops statistical models that help detect host attacks earlier in what cyber professionals call “the kill chain.”
“Combining the knowledge I gained from school with the skills I obtained during my internship helped to broaden my understanding of national security needs. The intern program at Sandia also allowed me to tour different Labs across the [DOE] complex, attend talks pertaining to my field and receive invaluable mentoring from staff,” Toya said.
Toya’s contributions provide threat-informed national cybersecurity solutions using timing information in process execution logs. This type of impact directly fulfills PVAMU’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department objective to produce researchers who can innovate and contribute to evolving technological challenges.
“The Sandia-Prairie View partnership has opened up a tremendous opportunity for our students to work on projects of national and global importance with the top-notch experts in the field, including our faculty members, using cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art instruments. The mentorship they receive prepares them to join elite research corps/workforce in industry and academia,” said Ramaswamy Krishnamoorthi, Ph.D., PVAMU executive director of Research and Innovation Administration.
Prairie View A&M is one of Sandia’s five academic partners in the Securing Top Academic Research and Talent at Historically Black Colleges & Universities, or START HBCU, program. With Sandia, the partners inspire and develop a diverse workforce through research partnerships on critical missions.
Click here to read the full release by Sandia LabNews.