- February 11, 2022
Kiera's MISTI summer showed her she has the ability to adapt and learn new things with language and the lab.
In the lead lab in a project with 6 other universities throughout Europe, Kiera was able to design a software to test the final design of the new technology being developed.
Leading technology with welcoming culture
For my summer in Madrid, I worked at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in the Instituto de Energía Solar. My summer project involved creating the program to test, measure, and control the newly designed thermophotovoltaic cells being developed for the project. I used Labview software to control the machinery for testing. For the second half of my project, I worked with Solidworks, where I designed the physical system for the final testing of the cell. My lab was the lead lab on a project between 7 universities throughout Europe. The culture of the lab was incredibly welcoming. Discussing everything from weekend trips to politics during lunch with my coworkers improved my spanish immensely, and eating with everyone from the interns to the PI was a great experience. "My MISTI summer showed me I have the ability to adapt and learn new things", says Kiera. "In the lab, I started from scratch with software I had never used and eventually fully completed my project. Outside the lab, I started the summer with only timid ‘Hola’s, and ended it discussing politics with my coworkers and careers with my flat mates."