Math Major works with NASA

Jessica Scheinbaum, a math major at Montclair, interned with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) this past summer. She worked in the Mission Control Systems division where she helped develop software to be used in future NASA missions. Jessica discovered the opportunity for this internship through the MSU Math Community and the mathematical and computer science concepts she learned in her classes were leveraged throughout the internship.

I specifically worked on a visualization system that builds off of what was used for Mars 2020 and is used by engineers to visualize spacecraft trajectories for specific types of missions. The work was in software engineering, but studying mathematics specifically helped me with mathematical concepts that were used to create simulations of planetary bodies and spacecraft, as well as with performing calculations and using mathematical equations in the programs. There are many engineering projects that involve data analysis, calculus, linear algebra, graph theory, and more, and studying mathematics makes it easier to learn programming, which is used by almost everyone at JPL.

We are incredibly proud of Jessica for her wonderful and impressive work this summer with the NASA JPL. Please join us in congratulating her!

If anyone is interested in interning with NASA JPL in the future, there are several different programs that allow students to intern over the summer or during the academic year, and there are many different kinds of engineering projects offered that require skills in mathematics.

Way to go, Jessica!