A Summer of Science: NIST Interns’ Stories of Their Time in the Lab

Morgan Ko, an undergraduate from the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, has always been a creator at heart. From meticulously crafting sculptures as a child to now navigating the intricate mesh of technology and the physical world, his passions are evident. This summer, Morgan embarked on an internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

While his academic interests align with robotics, his role at NIST plunged him into the depths of virtual reality. Tasked with refining the data storage techniques for VR, Morgan is not only enhancing NIST's research capabilities but also envisioning a future where his love for robotics and VR might seamlessly converge.

“Although I'm not working on robotics this summer, I’m working in another area of interest — virtual reality. Virtual reality involves a lot of data. Everything you interact with in a virtual world requires specific data to be stored in a file," shared Ko. "So, if you’re using a cellphone in a virtual world, the size, texture, and everything about that virtual cellphone is stored in a data file. The file type that NIST is currently using to store this data is old, so I’m writing code to move all that data over to a more recent format. This format is capable, widely supported, and quick to load. Working in this format will help make NIST’s VR research faster and more effective.”

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