Northrop Grumman challenges interns to fight worldwide fires
by Sofia Williams
Northrop Grumman interns were challenged to spot and extinguish fires around the world during the aerospace company’s annual summer intern Global Summit on Sunday, July 23 at Mira Costa’s Waller Stadium.
Interns had eight minutes to respond to fires, represented by orange tarps on small structures scattered across the stadium’s football field. A slow response would result in the fire spreading to neighboring structures.
“Demonstration Day is a big milestone for the interns. It showcases how each of the interns’ vehicles works in the larger scheme of things. It’s very reminiscent of what we do here at Space Park, and in any engineering setting,” Deputy Program Manager Samantha Caponpon said.

Mira Costa intern Caden Coons and University of Michigan intern Jakob Gorsiek-Gazze coordinate the takeoff of their drop vehicle. Coons and Barzee were on the Drop Team, which simulated the work of pilots who drop EMTs and firefighters into emergency zones.
The program’s 24 college interns and 16 high school interns were split into four groups of 10 interns each. The groups included the Surveillance Team, which monitored where the “fires” were and calls them in to the other teams; the Rover Team, which sprayed Silly String along the edges of the structures to represent fire extinguishers; the Fire Bomber Team, which dropped colored powder on the “fire” to extinguish it; and the Drop Team, which dropped Barbie dolls representing EMTs and firefighters onto the burning buildings.
Ashish Bhave, a senior at Purdue University majoring in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, said Demonstration Day “forces the teams to collaborate with one another.”
“Up to this point, the interns were focusing on their own requirements and their own team. On demo day you have to work with everyone else,” he said. “That’s reminiscent of the real world in any situation, even fighting fires. We have multiple systems doing different things. It’s a very complex, integrated system, and this is simulating that collaboration.”

The fire bomber team repairs their vehicle after the first round.
Upon being accepted into the eight-week program, the interns read a Request for Proposal (RFP), which included the specifications for the remote-controlled vehicles they would build and the details of the simulation. Then, each group created a preliminary design for their vehicle.
There were three design reviews: the first was in front of a panel of Global Summit alumni, the second was in front of Northrop Grumman managers and directors, and the final review was presented to vice presidents of the company.
“Not only are we teaching the interns technical skills, but we teach them soft skills, like creating and presenting charts that we see as engineers on a daily basis at Northrop Grumman,” said Caponpon. “It’s also a huge networking opportunity for interns from the Beach Cities.”

Mira Costa junior Matthew Long directs a rover over a fire.
The interns didn’t need a physics or engineering background to participate in the program, Program Manager Justin Kerr said.
“We don’t really care what your background is. We only care that you can deliver a vehicle to us in the end,” said Kerr. “This program is meant to challenge our interns and help them learn. We try not to distinguish between the high school and college interns, which I think is one of the best parts of the program.”
“It’s like planning a wedding; it really takes months of preparation,” Kerr said. “Not only are the interns bringing their vehicles, but they’re also bringing the chairs and tarps and determining if there’s anything we need to buy or prepare for, like damages to any of the components. It’s all about preparedness.” ER