Unfortunately, since I worked mapping coordinates for government projects, I can't post an image of my project. However I will attempt to describe it as best I can. I feel that the project I did will benefit SPAWAR employees for a very long time. First let me give the background on how I came up with my project idea. When I got to SPAWAR I was given maps of the facility to help me get around. Later on my mentor asked me to map out some points on the SPAWAR base using Google Earth just to get a hang of the software. But I immediately noticed that several buildings were missing on the maps that were handed out to me. Many others were marked incorrectly. I asked my mentor about this and she told me that finding buildings has always been a predicament at SPAWAR. At that moment I realized what my project could be. I would mark every single building at SPAWAR and upload that file to the SPAWAR private blog so that every employee at SPAWAR could use that. It was perfect a lot of work but the final product would be extremely beneficial to SPAWAR. So I went on my journey and acquired a bunch of maps both digital and physical and then I used those together (they were all different in some aspects) and started making one master Google Earth map. It was a huge pain acquiring all of these maps since they are considered confidential so that was a huge struggle I had to overcome.I had to overcome a lot of problems. One of them was getting my foreign computer onto a government network. So I took initiative and made some calls to get my computer online. Internet was really essential in getting my project done, my mentor was impressed that I took such initiative to get my computer online all by myself. Those were about the only problems I encountered the only other one being labeling literally hundreds of buildings individually sometimes not sure what each building should be labeled. I started this project on my second day and finished it in only a week. The final result was not rushed though, and I'm confident that it's something that will really help out the good folks at SPAWAR!
How has your view of life beyond high school changed during your time as an intern?
I think my view changed quite a bit since now I actually have an idea of what the working world is outside of media and imagination. Also like I previously mentioned it convinced me that I want to get a job in a creative area or at least in an area that I'm passionate about. That only scratches the surface of the things I've realized though. What new questions has your internship inspired you to ask about our world? Hmm, this question makes it sound like I'm some kind of alien or lizard-person. But I guess I'd totally want to ask what paths somebody would take to end up in the positions they're in. But then again that question doesn't have one single answer since it seems that many people at SPAWAR got their positions in many different ways. Some came in as interns others were only contractors but got hired. So I just want to know how to get where in life. How might internship influence your direction in life? If I'd have to guess (which I do with my deficiency of clairvoyance) I'd say that it helped me decide what I want to study outside of high school. Well decide wouldn't be the right way to say it, it helped me narrow down my options. An example of this is how I started doing a lot of writing during my internship just for fun. That helped me realize something I already knew (hmm.) I love writing. So like I've had to answer for all of these questions it helped me realize I want to pursue a creative career. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace?
The project I decided to do independently involved mapping out the buildings in the extensive facility that is SPAWAR. It seems that most of the employees at SPAWAR are still confused about where to find what buildings at SPAWAR, despite working there for years. Even though there are maps with building numbers on them, they aren't accurate. I found this out on my second day here. So I made a Google map that completely mapped out SPAWAR future interns, or even SPAWAR employees, will be able to use this dynamic map to locate buildings at SPAWAR. How was your work as an intern meaningful to your education? I feel that what SPAWAR did for me was it seriously helped me narrow down what it is I want to study out of High School. It made the idea of pursuing some sort of creative career a concrete goal in my head. I also got a bit of a taste of how working in a professional environment is like and that certainly did something for my education. How did your project go from an idea or inspiration to a final product? I think it's pretty interesting how I thought of my final project. On the very first day we were handed maps of SPAWAR to help us get around. Because I was going to be working with maps, my mentor asked me to map out some points in SPAWAR just to practice using Google Earth. However I immediately noticed that there where buildings missing on the paper map I was handed. A lot actually! So I asked my mentor for any other paper maps she might have. I got a few more that had more buildings on it, however it was blurry. So at that point I set out on the project of mapping out all of SPAWAR on Google Earth and saving it as a file that could be efficiently shared and used by everyone at SPAWAR. A few days ago my mentor and I attended a tour of the Modal Range/Barracks area. And it was very interesting to say the least! The first thing we did during this fieldtrip was we went to a small conference room where multiple SPAWAR employees presented what they're working on. In that area the researchers worked mostly on antenna design so I got to see an antenna that would supposedly be immune to jamming by diverting the signal being transmitted to a funky looking antenna that had been in development for a few years. After we did that we went to another building in the area where they tested some kind of machine, most likely something antenna related, using a room filled with blue foam spikes. After that we headed over to a workshop where model bras ships are made. The reason these are made is to test antenna accuracy and potency. But how are these ships used you may ask. You see, the ships are replicated down to the very last detail every small structure on board is replicated and the ship is outfitted with working antennas. Then the ship is placed under a huge sort of dome like structure that sends out a signal. There had to be at least a hundred ships in the building we went to go see. They were all built at one forty eighth of the actual size but they were still unbelievably huge. Some where at least over ten feet long. This was only a small area within SPAWAR, it really makes you wonder just how many different thigs are going on here.
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