Summary

Week 6 of the SEED internship brought a dynamic blend of storytelling, space exploration, and corporate inspiration. From preparing poster presentations to engaging with Chevron executives and walking through NASA’s astronaut training facilities.

Pitching Our Projects – Poster Presentations to the Student Shop Managers Team

We kicked off the week by preparing our project posters for a showcase hosted by the student shop managers at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. It was a valuable crash course in communicating complex ideas visually and concisely. With feedback from our mentors and a few late-night iterations, we proudly presented at the O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. The audience, comprising shop technicians, engineers, and design mentors, provided insightful feedback that helped refine our technical direction for the final stages of prototyping. It was energizing to see their curiosity and to realize how much our work resonated with people from different disciplines.

A Visit to Chevron – Innovation Meets Industry

On Friday, we had the incredible opportunity to visit Chevron’s Houston offices, where we were warmly hosted by Sucheta Tiwari, Mamadou M. Blondin Beye, and their team. The visit was more than just a corporate tour—it was an open dialogue on how industry leaders are investing in innovation and how our generation can be part of building sustainable and impactful technologies. Chevron’s support of the SEED internship through Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies was made deeply evident by their genuine interest in our work. I left the visit feeling both inspired and empowered to take the lessons and momentum from this summer back home to Kenya and build something even greater.

Photoshoot

Mid-week, we had a photoshoot where and took photos for the whole SEED team and also took photos with our different project members.

 

NASA Johnson Space Center – A Childhood Dream Realized

Last Sunday was pure magic, we visited the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston! For a kid who grew up curious about how the world works (and maybe dreamed a little about space), it was an unforgettable experience.  In the Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility, we saw life-sized modules and training replicas of spacecraft used by astronauts, including the Crew Dragon and Orion capsules. It was surreal imagining astronauts rehearsing missions in those very same mockups. The interactive exhibits took us even deeper into space science, robotics, space suits, and Moon rock collections. I was especially captivated by the real SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the enormous Space Shuttle Independence, which was mounted on top of a modified Boeing 747. It’s hard to put into words how awe-inspiring it was to stand next to machinery that once breached Earth’s atmosphere. I also did a career test inside the Boeing space shuttle carrier.