Internships Provide JUMP Into STEM Winners With Experiential Buildings Research Opportunities
Pop quiz: What sets highly educated college students apart from their peers when entering
a competitive job market? The ability to network? Giving effective oral presentations
in front of their peers and industry specialists? Proposal writing to secure funding
for research?
If you answered, “All of these and more,” you are right. And while some of these skills
are introduced in the classroom, many are learned through experiential learning opportunities
like collegiate competitions and internships.
Enter JUMP into STEM. This U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program supports the goals and objectives listed
in the recently released Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector by challenging students to find new solutions to increase building energy efficiency
while taking equity, affordability, and resilience into consideration. JUMP into STEM Final Competition winners receive a unique opportunity to build up their resumes ahead of graduation by interning
at one of three national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL). This year, three of the 11 winners chose NREL as their 10-week paid internship
destination: Maddax Frye from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Spencer Marinac
from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Levi Premer from Purdue University
(who will be attending as a doctoral student this fall).
“It’s kind of crazy to be among all these really smart people who have decided to
do this for a career, and they get to do this every day,” Frye said. “It’s amazing.
My biggest takeaway is that you don’t see doing research at a national lab as a viable
option while you’re in school. So, seeing it as an option has been eye opening.”
JUMP into STEM focuses on interdisciplinary solutions to some of the biggest challenges
in the buildings sector while encouraging contestants to work together as a team,
present their ideas to other professionals, and network. For contest winners, these
activities eventually feed into a summer internship.
“It feels like JUMP into STEM is a very tailored program,” said Lixi Liu, a researcher
in NREL’s Building Technologies and Science Center and a mentor to Maddax Frye. “Once
you’re in the competition, you have all of these perks, like collaboration with the
lab and a paid trip to visit the industry sponsor, and you get to pick what project
you work on as part of your internship.”
For each of this summer’s interns, JUMP into STEM and experience at NREL have led
to new opportunities.
Room To Explore
Maddax Frye, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
and Jeff Maguire (right). Photo by Gregory Cooper, NREL
Maddax Frye’s Introduction to Electrical Engineering class was given the choice to
either participate in JUMP into STEM or take a traditional final exam at the end of
the semester. Naturally, the class chose to participate in the competition. When Frye’s
team won the Final Competition, she chose to spend her summer interning at NREL with
mentors Lixi Liu and Jeff Maguire, researchers in NREL’s Building Technologies and
Science Center.
The research project Frye worked on this summer was related to affordable and equitable
residential electrification under electrical panel and service constraints. She compared
the size of electrical panels in the current stock of residential housing to the size
the panels must be to fully electrify these homes and increase the capacity for electrical
demand.
“The research side of things is completely new,” Frye said. “It’s not what they focus
on in school at all. The technical aspects are always going to be the same, but it’s
an entirely new perspective as far as the aspects of the problem you’re looking at—new
technologies and implementation and feasibility.”
“Maddax came highly recommended, and I can see why,” Liu said. “She’s very independent
and a quick study who can get a lot done with minimal guidance. This is especially
impressive since she’s only a junior in college.”
Maguire added, “We’re having a hard time finding stuff for her to do, she’s doing
things so quickly.”
After completing her internship this summer, Frye plans to continue her engineering
studies with a focus in mechanical engineering. She hopes to explore more opportunities
with the national laboratory system next summer and then eventually consider how the
laboratories fit into her future career choice.
Spencer Marinac, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
(left). Photo by Gregory Cooper, NREL
Spencer Marinac was introduced to JUMP into STEM when a teaching assistant who had
formerly interned at NREL suggested it as a capstone project for his senior design
class.
“The hardest part of JUMP into STEM was the presentations,” Marinac said. “This was
my first time giving a presentation with some real risk involved to an audience that
wasn’t just my classmates. I’m not the most extroverted, but it helped me with that,
in addition to networking by talking to people at JUMP into STEM. They’re both useful
tools that I had to learn on the fly.”
Over the summer, Marinac worked with his mentor, NREL Building Technologies and Science
Center researcher Ransisi Huang, on a clustering analysis approach to improve the
modeling of thermal storage integrated heat pump systems. Using NREL building modeling
tools like ResStockTM and EnergyPlus®, Marinac looked at a full year of energy load data and clustered
those data into days to simplify the data pull.
“Spencer has done a really good job and communicated very actively with me,” Huang
said. “He’s very independent and responsive and can get things done. He’s an excellent
student.”
After his internship, Marinac is returning to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
as a new graduate student in mechanical engineering, working toward a master’s degree.
Although his postgraduation plans have not changed, his internship at NREL has opened
his eyes to the possibility of incorporating simulation tools into future work.
“The internship has given me options and room to explore,” Marinac said.
Levi Premer, Purdue University
Heredia (right). Photo by Gregory Cooper, NREL
While a graduate student at Purdue University, Levi Premer was introduced to JUMP
into STEM by his advisor. One of the Final Competition’s winning teams in 2023 was
from Purdue University, and Premer’s advisor encouraged his students to submit a proposal
to build their proposal-writing skills.
“For JUMP into STEM we came up with a project, concept, and wrote a plan of action,”
Premer said.
“Although my other teammates and I were in a similar research area, we had completely
different research subjects. So, we had to mesh our expertise to come up with a fluid
and sound idea that was feasible. I think that process assisted in me learning how
to better work with individuals and leverage skill sets and expertise to meet a single
goal with our multifaceted backgrounds.”
Premer chose to intern at NREL this summer. Although this was the fifth or sixth internship
of his academic career, this one was unique: It was his first hands-on experience
in a research lab within a national laboratory. Additionally, he and NREL have a history.
“Actually, a year or two ago I reached out to NREL researcher Jason Woods,” he said.
“I’ve been very interested in NREL’s goals and how they align with my research. But
there’s nothing like getting firsthand experience.”
With his mentors Willy Bernal Heredia and Omkar Ghatpande, Premer is exploring laboratory
validation of affordable and equitable residential electrification under electrical
panel and service constraints. This project aims to help residents of a building electrify
their appliances and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems without having
to upgrade the electrical panel, which can be costly. Creating a smarter home can
help limit power use during peak times and prevent the breaker panel from flipping
because of extraneous loads.
“I’m very impressed with the quality and quantity of Levi’s work,” Bernal Heredia
said. “I was very surprised to find out that he’s very good at communicating and diligent
at his work, and that he’s been making sure we stay on track. For me, I think sometimes
as a researcher I’m working on multiple projects and can get stuck. Levi comes with
all this energy, enthusiasm, and a really good work ethic. He makes sure all the tasks
will get done properly and accurately and keeps us on our toes.”
Premer is entering the first year of his doctoral program at Purdue University. Although
that will be his focus for the foreseeable future, he hopes he can continue to collaborate
and participate in joint projects with NREL. Ultimately, Premer can see himself as
a future staff member at NREL. “I’ve been very impressed with everyone’s aptitude
and passion to try and make an impact in this world with good technological outcomes,”
he said of his experience. “NREL, hopefully I’ll see you later.”
JUMP Into STEM Returns to NREL in 2024–2025
The 2024–2025 JUMP into STEM competition is kicking off this fall, with the Final Competition returning to NREL
Jan. 30–31, 2025. The competition is open to teams of two to four students enrolled
in U.S. colleges and universities. Mixed-major teams are highly encouraged. These
are teams consisting of students researching different fields related to the building
industry (e.g., architecture, engineering, public policy, computer science, economics,
and more).
The competition is judged in two rounds:
- Fall semester challenges: Student teams select one of this year’s challenge topics and respond with a written solution. Challenge-level winners are selected from each
of the three challenges. Challenge winners are awarded one-on-one mentorship opportunities. - JUMP into STEM Final Competition: Eligible challenge-level winners are invited to compete against each other in person
at the Final Competition, which will be held at NREL on Jan. 30–31, 2025. Final Competition
winners are offered a 10-week paid summer internship at NREL, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
or Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
2024–2025 Challenge Topics
No Peaking! Managing Peak Power Demand in Buildings
The objective of this challenge is to reduce peak power demand (load) in U.S. buildings
(residential, commercial, new, or existing) by focusing on their thermal loads and/or
heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. Innovative solutions should lead
to significant reductions in carbon emissions while being accessible to low- and moderate-income
communities.
Taking Comfort to the Extreme
This challenge asks students to develop energy-efficient and affordable technologies
that tackle the issues of decarbonization and resilience in extreme climates and/or
communities affected by extreme weather events. Teams should first build out a focused
problem statement for a specific stakeholder group (i.e., climatic zone) and then
develop a technical solution that meets the needs of the population.
Building Affordability
The objective of this challenge is to improve the building envelope performance of
new or existing residential buildings by reducing energy consumption in a cost-effective
and accessible way.
JUMP into STEM Challenge submissions are due Nov. 8, 2024.
Learn more about Jump into STEM.