Florida Polytechnic University rising sophomore Josh Alletto’s knowledge, confidence, and high-tech skills earned him a summer internship that he’s sure will change his life.
Alletto, an electrical engineering major, is spending his summer working at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. The laboratory is a federally funded research and development center owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The opportunity to work at Argonne was the result of being at the right place at the right time and having a knack for sharing his ideas. Alletto toured the lab last summer and spent some time exploring the facility when he ran into the chief operating officer of the department where he now works.
“We struck up a conversation and I talked about all the projects I like to do, what I’m studying, and that I was planning on attending Florida Poly. He really liked me,” Alletto said. “They literally opened an internship spot for me and now I work directly below him, helping with project management for the entire building.”
While most interns are assigned a single research project, Alletto has been working on four different projects. He said the primary one involves the proposals the lab receives from large organizations around the world who want to use its supercomputer.
“Last year they had a process where they would read through all these profiles and extract data Argonne needed for these proposals, and they did it all by hand,” he said. “I have a lot of familiarity with coding, so I offered to automate the system and build a program to read through the proposals and take out the data they need.”
With trial and error and help from engineers at Argonne, Alletto is turning the days-long process of going through more than 150 50-page proposals into one that can be completed in minutes.
“I was excited to build it and they’re obviously excited to save a lot of time,” he said.
Alletto is also working on helping with the construction of an autonomous robot that will deliver tools to users throughout the laboratory campus.
“This is definitely different than a lot of other jobs – it’s like a whole new world,” Alletto said, remarking that he’s in awe of the multi-million-dollar machines the lab uses. “You hear all these things posted in science journals and all the innovations they come out with every year, and I’m here and get to be part of it.
“It definitely makes me feel at home with what I’m studying at Florida Poly.”
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