Germany's national aerospace research center
I helped DLR’s Satellite Networks team improve their understanding of the local atmospheric effects on laser communication (lasercom). Lasercom has some advantages over traditional radio communication from the shorter wavelength used. Unfortunately, turbulent air degrades lasercom signals, so system designers need to know how severe the turbulence is. I did data analysis on an instrument next to DLR’s lasercom ground telescope and assessed how much that information could improve link budgets. The work I did will be used by my supervisor on future lasercom downlinks and by others in the group. He and I also presented the results at a conference on ATM turbulence in Paris in December.
My experience at MIT, especially my master’s thesis work at MIT LL and in STAR Lab, was enormously beneficial in completing this work. The group here is the equivalent of where I worked at MIT so all the knowledge from the last year of thesis research carried right over. Technical work abroad is an incomparable experience, not only in increasing the breadth of knowledge covered by an MIT degree but also in broadening of the student’s awareness of the world.