NASA internship launches student’s exploration of novel solutions to water and climate issues

SARP is an eight-week program during which students gain hands-on experience with airborne data collection on board one of NASA's flying labs coupled with additional fieldwork to create complex data sets.

"Dr. Gaur was in the first class of SARP ever, and now I'm in the first class of SARP East," Tesfayi said. "It's kind of funny how it worked out, to be honest."

Tesfayi's work with SARP took him to the Chesapeake Bay area in Newport News, Virginia, where he worked with an aquatic research team to conduct water quality measurements via aircraft, boat and on foot. After careful data collection, he spent time meeting with local stakeholders, including local Chickahominy and Pamunkey nations, as well as analyzing and showcasing data for future use in local conservation efforts.

Now that he has completed his undergraduate studies, Tesfayi has graduate school in his sights.

"I think there's so much more to learn," he said. "One of the things that I got from all these internships that I've done is how much there is to learn, and then you understand that your undergraduate education is just the tiniest investigation into that."

His planned area of study is remote sensing. He will be using satellite and drone imagery to collect environmental data, an area in which he already has gained experience through a prior project on flood mapping.