Mid Atlantic Aviation Partnership Internship
In mid-April of 2025, I began working as a Drone Technology and Testing Engineer Intern with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP). MAAP is a drone testing group within Virginia Tech's ICTAS group in the Corporate Research Center.
As an intern I was super excited to be a contributor to multiple projects and step into engineering projects that would force me to learn. While there is a lot I cannot share due to Virginia Tech's Technology Control Plans I hope to present this amazing opportunity for my freshman summer fully.
At the time of writing (end of freshman summer) I have been an engineer on a multitude of projects that required learning Inventor, Python, Git, drone system components, hardware fabrication, and radar and camera support. Some highlights are below:
Drone Camp
Virginia Tech has an Imagination Dream Camp where students can participate in STEM camps for free. MAAP, along with Virginia Tech's Drone Camp, hosts a drone camp where students can attend for a week to learn about drone safety, build a kit, and take a drone home after a competition to practice flying skills.
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I was super grateful to be able to support the camp; it’s extremely rewarding to give back to kids who remind me of when I was a kid.
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My work with the camp included documenting and redesigning all the manuals, putting together the kits, and ultimately ensuring every student understood how their kit went together.
Engineering Integration support
Most of my work is to facilitate work that will
be needed for field testing.
My First Deliverable was adding a adjustable fixed rail system to Hexcoon Drones. This added more possible configurations for on-board computers, radars, and cameras.
This is a waypoint generator script created in Python and added to MAAP's GitLab for creating test points given a radar’s position and bearing. I used pip and the Git command-line interface in PowerShell to manage the repository.
This is a GPS Tracking Module, I created the Red Casing to be an all-encompassing storage Unit with all the ports available. It also locks for security and is made to properly expel heat form any of the components. It is meant to be onboard aircraft to report truth data related to the aircrafts position and velocity.
Operational Support
Once a project reaches the Field-Testing Stage I transfer into an Operational Role to continue supporting the project. This is always a huge difference in mindset and subject matter.
Learning about Safety procedures within Aircraft Operations is not a small amount of material. Observing Safety Briefing, Steril Communications, Radar Weather observation, and our relationships with the surrounding Facilities and Air Space is very new and different than anything I have worked with.