University Students Aid Smart Connected Systems Research in NIST’s SURF Program

Annually, NIST selects students for Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) to work in areas that support its mission. NIST seeks to inspire students to serve in these fields. During their 11-week internship, students are exposed to cutting edge research areas and NIST researchers benefit from their fresh perspectives and thinking. This summer, the following SURF students researched and presented on projects in NIST’s Smart Connected Systems Division:

Benjamin Philipose, Seattle University: After working as a 2022 SURF intern on automated vehicle behaviors, Philipose returned in 2023 to investigate the impact of communications network latency on time-critical decisions for automated vehicles (AVs). Philipose examined how physics and network co-simulations could assess such scenarios as AVs braking at varying speeds, with and without communications.

Benjamin Winig, University of Maryland: Winig assessed uses and benefits of simulating manufacturing environments using NIST’s newly released SimPROCESD. Specifically, Winig focused on simulating and graphing manufacturing events, like those in processing a part. This event graphing included degradation of machine health over time and showing data that indicated when machine repairs were needed.