The New Zealand Space Scholarships were presented by the Minister for Space, the Honourable Judith Collins, at a ceremony held at Parliament. Alongside the students from Te Herenga Waka, four other students from universities across New Zealand received scholarships.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these incredibly capable students,” said Ms Collins. “They will gain invaluable experience working on projects alongside scientists and engineers who are part of world-leading NASA missions.
“These three-month internships will equip them with real-world skills to kick-start exciting careers in New Zealand’s fast-growing space industry.”
The scholarship recipients from Te Herenga Waka are:
Mark Bishop
Pursuing a PhD in Physics, his research applies analytical and numerical techniques to understand how to best measure turbulence in astrophysical fluids from telescope data.
"During my time at JPL, I hope to deepen my understanding of machine learning and telescope data processing techniques. I look forward to applying this experience to my PhD research and to future career opportunities,” says Mark.
Mark will be participating in a project at JPL studying the Big Bang and the early universe through Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.
Sofie Claridge
Sofie is pursuing a PhD in Machine Learning, focusing on enhancing the temperature sensing capabilities of fibre cables to help monitor harsh environments such as fusion reactors.
“I'm incredibly excited and grateful for the opportunity to intern at JPL. I can't wait to get started and apply my knowledge in machine learning to the lunar rover project,” says Sofie.
“This experience will not only contribute to this mission but also significantly enhance my PhD research.”
Her internship project will involve using machine learning to detect anomalous scenarios involving a lunar rover.
Taran John
Currently completing a PhD in Computer Science, with a focus on AI, Taran specialises in applying Machine Learning to computer vision.
"I'm incredibly grateful to the New Zealand Space Agency for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work alongside world-class scientists at JPL.
“During my time there, I hope to build meaningful relationships within the JPL community and gain valuable insights into how cutting-edge academic research can be applied to real-world challenges in space exploration. I'm excited to bring this knowledge and experience back to contribute to New Zealand's dynamic space science community,” says Taran.
At JPL, his internship will focus on a project to facilitate the interaction between astronauts and surface systems in support of in-situ sampling using an AI assistant.