Lydia Carroll can’t help smiling when discussing her experiences working as a SPUR scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab last summer.
“It was just so amazing,” the senior biomedical engineering major from Washington, D.C., said. “I was astounded at the level of responsibility that they gave me in the first few weeks, especially considering I am only an undergraduate and I was working with this very expensive prosthetic arm. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I got this opportunity.”
Carroll and other Whiting School of Engineering students who participated in the APL/WSE Summer Program in Undergraduate Research program—also known as SPUR—during the summer of 2015 gathered in JHU’s Glass Pavilion last
2015 SPUR scholar Lydia Carroll discusses her research
IMAGE: WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
week to kick off the SPUR 2016 application season with a poster, information session, and presentations by two 2015 SPUR scholars, including Carroll.
The School of Engineering and APL launched the prestigious and competitive summer internship program in 2014. It provides highly qualified engineering students with the opportunity to conduct research at the Applied Physics Laboratory, working on APL-sponsored projects. For the last two summers, School of Engineering interns have worked on projects in areas ranging from ballistic missile systems and computer vision to prosthetic limbs and secure mobile communications.
“We are so happy to be able to offer WSE students this tremendous opportunity to work closely with mentors at the Applied Physics Lab—an unparalleled organization—on a variety of projects,” said Ed Schlesinger, dean of the Whiting
School of Engineering, in an address to the gathering. “SPUR represents our commitment to integrating research and hands-on experiences into undergraduate education.”
Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 cohort of SPUR scholars.
Excerpted from The Hub. Read the complete story here.