Researcher Position - Researcher NSF Employee Review

Excellent hands-on exposure to autonomous systems validation. I gained practical experience testing a heterogeneous UAV–UGV platform, running navigation and collision-avoidance trials on Jetson Orin Nano and Raspberry Pi, and debugging ROS 2/DDS and UDP communication issues. The role provided meaningful ownership of test planning, requirements traceability, and iterative firmware improvement.

Because this is a research-focused program, project requirements and priorities can evolve as the system develops. Integration across hardware, firmware, communication, and autonomy components may require additional iteration, especially when reproducing system-level issues. The pace can be challenging for interns who are new to robotics testing or embedded systems.

Flexible timing, very simple managerial tasks.

Not enough work was prescribed; I wish there were bigger projects, but lots of waiting for other figureheads to respond.