Two Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) students – Deividas Čelkys and Tomas Narbuntas – are among the 4 winners of a national competition for an internship at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in the USA. The competition is being organised by the Lithuanian Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology MITA annually.
The two KTU students, together with their colleagues from other countries, are starting their 16-weeks-long internship in Silicon Valley, California this Monday, August 26. KTU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design students Deividas Čelkys (vehicle engineering) and Tomas Narbuntas (mechanical engineering), both undergraduates, were invited to conduct experimental research in the field of aeromechanics at NASA Ames.
“NASA internship is a perfect opportunity to open up your career; it is a once-in-a-lifetime possibility to introduce your ideas to the top-class researchers working there. Also, the best students from around the world are coming to this internship, so there are plenty of networking opportunities”, said Julija Kravčenko, biomedical engineering student Julija Kravčenko, who completed her internship at NASA last year.
KTU students are very active participants of the national competition for the internship at NASA Ames. This year, 30 students from various higher education institutions took part in the competition. MITA has been collaborating with NASA in organising the internships for students since 2014 after the bilateral cooperation agreement on the International Internship Program (NASA I²) was signed. More than 20 students from Lithuania have participated in the internship since 2014; almost half of them – from KTU.
“This is a clear demonstration that studies at KTU are based on research. In order to pass the tough selection, the students needed to demonstrate their skills and research competences, and also to employ their soft skills, such as delivering a presentation and completing the application. The continuous success of KTU students in this competition shows that our students have ideas, which are attractive even to NASA. I believe that ideas are the most precious resource today”, says Leonas Balaševičius, KTU Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation.
