KTU student Povilas Piartli in NASA Ames
“During the internship in NASA I have been building a Tensegrity robot prototype, which had different structure than the one which was currently developed by NASA researchers. The aim of the project was to create a robot which didn’t need any special landing mechanism, so it could be just thrown on Mars without thinking about the landing surface”, said Povilas Piartli from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design who has spent last summer in NASA.
Four Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) students – Martynas Lendraitis, Kristijonas Kerekeš, Povilas Piartli and Donatas Miklušis – have been chosen for the summer internship at NASA Ames Research Centre last summer. Three of them were studying at KTU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design and one (Donatas) – at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
According to Kęstutis Šetkus, Director at Lithuanian Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) last year NASA has chosen the record-breaking number of Lithuanian students: from the 12 nationally selected candidates, 6 were invited to NASA Ames. In total, 38 students participated in the national selection.
NASA Ames Research Centre internships provide students with the possibility to work next to world-class researchers in development projects, which will shape our lives in the future.
The duration of the internship is 16 weeks and it will take place from 27 August until 14 December 2018. The projects, which the interns will be able to contribute to vary from small satellites’, unmanned aircraft development to microbial factories exploration.
MITA has signed the collaboration with NASA in 2014. Since then, 17 Lithuanian students have undergone internships at NASA Ames Research Centre.
