Operating Status Summer 2024:

Students will be able to participate on-site, virtually, or a hybrid of the two. Decisions for each student will be made on an individual basis at the discretion of the Mentor’s chain of command and will be based on the proposed work/project.

Student Requirements:

NREIP Students must be solely U.S. citizens and have the ability to obtain a security clearance prior to start date. (Permanent residents and dual citizens are not eligible.) Students must also have their own housing and transportation to the site.

Mission

To provide transparency to warfighting readiness through data analytics and assessment, engineering the Fleet’s Live-Virtual-Constructive training environment, and assuring the accuracy of measurements.

About the Lab

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Warfare Centers are the Navy's principal research, development, test and evaluation, analysis and assessment activities for ship and submarine platform and machinery technology for surface combat systems, ordnance, mines, and strategic systems products and support. As part of NAVSEA, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division (NSWC Corona) is one of the Navy's newest federal labs and is responsible for gauging the warfighting capability of weapons and integrated combat systems through assessment of systems' performance, readiness, quality, supportability, and the adequacy of training. The Navy, Marine Corps, and other military agencies rely on NSWC Corona to validate whether complex weapons and combat systems work properly; whether their measurements are accurate and the calibrations are right; and whether their training is effective in preparation for the fight. With nearly 2,400 scientists, engineers, support staff and contractors, the command’s support to the Fleet, program managers, and warfighters has saved the Navy tens of millions of dollars by providing decision makers with accurate, unbiased information used to resolve problems early in the development cycle. NSWC Corona has four departments that support a subset of the Navy's chartered technical capabilities, which, in collaboration with the other warfare centers, form a strategic and synergistic team ready to meet the challenges of the future. The Warfare Center is home to three premiere national laboratories and assessment centers: the Joint Warfare Assessment Lab; the Measurement Science and Technology Lab; and the new Daugherty Memorial Assessment Center.

What is unique about this lab?

NSWC Corona values your quality of life and a work/life balance. We offer our civilian employees a flexible schedule, competitive salaries and generous benefits in an informal workplace that is home to three premiere federal laboratories.

About the Internship

We are seeking motivated college students with an interest in expanding their knowledge and developing their hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Summer interns are provided with an environment that will foster their creativity, help them develop a problem-solving mindset, and give them the opportunity to participate in meaningful technical research while working with and analyzing some of the most complex electronic and electromechanical systems in the world. The work assignments at NSWC Corona are interesting, rewarding and essential to the Department of Defense. Additionally, they will have an opportunity to demonstrate their career potential to a wide cross-section of the technical community, and gain experience in a professional workplace that specializes in STEM careers.

What will I do any given day as an intern at this lab?

Interns participate in lab functions in a number of ways including (but not limited to) assisting mentors with guided research projects; job and project shadowing with professional researchers; networking with other interns and STEM professionals; attending technical meetings, seminars, and conferences; group mentoring sessions; participating at outreach events; team and leadership development and workshops; touring labs; and other professional development activities.

What majors and disciplines are a good fit for interning at this lab?

The primary fields of interest are:

• Applied Mathematics
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Cybersecurity
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Engineering
• Information Science
• Management/Leadership
• Material Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Photonics
• Physics
• Programming
• Robotics
• Statistics
• Systems Engineering
• Telecommunications

Other related fields may be considered.

What will I learn as an intern at this lab?

As part of the internship, you may work individually or work in a small group with other highly motivated interns. The projects that the groups are working on are designed to help contribute to a solution to either real-world warfighter challenges or other real-world technical challenges. You will get hands-on experience supporting our current projects, experiments, test and engineering evaluations, cybersecurity, data analytics, tool development, and other STEM activities under the guidance of experienced engineering and science mentors. You will learn research processes, protocols, brainstorm potential solutions, and learn about important and necessary ways we support our warfighters.

What kinds of projects do interns at this lab participate in?

Acquisition Readiness Department: The Acquisition and Readiness Assessment (AR) Department serves as the Navy’s Independent Assessment agent to assure disciplined application of systems engineering, risk management, quality, and management principles for development, production, and sustainment of defense systems. NSWC Corona provides quality and mission assurance for Strategic and Missile Defense systems that have a very low tolerance for failure or problem systems where the program manager requests focused support. They develop and tailor Quality and Mission Assurance (Q&MA) requirements which outline program office expectations for management and customer involvement in key technical processes during acquisition and sustainment such as system engineering, test, configuration control, reliability, manufacturing. The AR department serves as the Navy’s assessment agent for material readiness to sustain and improve the warfighting capability of the Fleet, providing reliability, maintainability, and availability (RM&A) metrics for over 600 systems and 2800 variants (C5I and HM&E on surface ships and submarines) delivering automated & predictive analytics, and provides stockpile reliability for Navy surface missiles. Additionally the department manages and operates the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP), the Trouble Failure Report (TFR) Program for strategic programs, and the Sunset Supply Base (SSB) Program for managing commercial item obsolescence.

Measurement Science and Engineering Department: The Measurement Science (MS) and Engineering Department at NSWC Corona is designated as the Navy's Test and Monitoring Systems technical advisor responsible for disseminating calibration guidance to over 2,750 personnel across the Naval enterprise, and ensuring accurate and traceable measurements to international standards to reduce the risk of wrong test decisions and improve Fleet lethality. Corona authors the detailed calibration procedures used to perform nearly 500,000 calibrations each year on the Navy's more than 1.6 million pieces of test equipment; and uses the results from these calibrations to establish and optimize calibration periodicities to ensure the proper risk vs. cost trade-off. In measurement areas where the Navy/USMC are unable to find a suitable commercial solution, Corona partners with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Army, and the Air Force to ensure that measurement technology is developed in a complimentary manner and that fielded solutions will interoperate across the services.

Performance Assessment Department: The Performance Assessment (PA) Department serves as the independent analysis and assessment agent across several warfare areas including Air Defense, Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Surface, Strike, and, Cyber. The department's expertise is utilized across unit level, multi-ship, and strike group compositions. The department has developed key information system capabilities (communications, computing, software, and instrumentation) to perform combat system and missile telemetry data management (DM), on-site data analysis (DA), and off-board worldwide data transfer across brown, green, and blue water environments. The advanced DM and DA capabilities support emerging combat systems, baseline upgrades, and regression testing. The department provides combat systems assessments and performance reports. This flexibility and depth provides Navy leadership with indices of combat readiness and identification of performance limiters and drivers across the lifecycle.

Range Systems Engineering Department: The Range Systems (RS) Engineering Department builds instruments and supports DoD test and training ranges worldwide. They have personnel working around the world in places like Fallbrook CA, Orlando FL, Virginia Beach VA, Cherry Point NC, Fallon NV, Beaufort SC, and Honolulu HI. Functions include analyzing Fleet exercise performance, enabling training by providing range systems engineering and management to meet Fleet Readiness Training Program requirements, conducting range system operational assessments, and providing engineering solutions for military test and training range communication, data distribution, and weapon scoring instrumentation. The department provides systems engineering and technical guidance to range commanders and managers across the Navy and Marine Corps and serves as the technical agent for operation, maintenance and engineering of Navy and Marine Corps Tactical Training Range (TTR) systems.