New U.S. Coast Guard PEO Launches Internship Program

To help reimagine how the U.S. Coast Guard does business, the newly established Coast Guard Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Program Executive Office (PEO) and NobleReach Foundation are launching a 14-week internship program this month.

Five graduate and undergraduate students studying artificial intelligence (AI), engineering and other science-related fields will spend the fall semester in Washington, D.C., working in three main areas: search and rescue enhancement, pollution response optimization, and platform integration and data infusion. The interns will help develop AI-based methods for object detection in maritime environments, assist with the development of AI systems that assess oil spills and other environmental threats and analyze current Coast Guard data and system integration challenges.

Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Wofford, who has been in the Coast Guard since 2007, is overseeing the internship program on the RAS PEO side. He said he’s most excited to gain a fresh perspective from the interns.

“While we are a military organization, we work a lot with nonmilitary personnel, particularly in our civilian corps, and having vested and interested people who want to work in government is a huge benefit for the Coast Guard, especially people who have very technical backgrounds and understanding of how these new complex systems work,” Wofford said.

The establishment of the RAS PEO was announced August 19, and according to the Coast Guard’s press release, the PEO is “aimed at integrating capabilities and is poised to be the most transformational enhancement to capability since the inception of aviation.”

Within the three focus areas, Wofford said the interns will work on maritime unmanned systems, counter-unmanned aircraft systems and long-, medium- and short-range aerial systems, which are central to the RAS PEO’s efforts. The goal is to have the interns help figure out the best ways to integrate unmanned systems across all domains and Coast Guard missions.

“Hopefully, we can give them opportunities to talk to operators in the fleet and understand how we currently do maybe two or three of those mission sets,” Wofford said.

In addition to the Coast Guard’s mentorship, Linda Bixby, executive vice president for academic partnerships at NobleReach, will work closely with the interns to help them navigate working with the government. Bixby has worked within the intelligence community for most of her career and is passionate about inspiring the next generation of innovators.

NobleReach is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that connects talented and innovative students with academia, industry and government to help strengthen national security. The nonprofit’s role in the program is to help the interns build on their leadership and communication skills and learn about the acquisition process.

“I feel very honored in this position in academic partnerships where I can help inspire this next generation of talent and this next generation of innovation for public service,” Bixby said.

Starting next week, the interns will begin working directly with the RAS PEO and check in with the team at NobleReach for mentorship throughout the 14 weeks. According to Bixby, NobleReach will provide the interns and their advisers at the RAS PEO with an impact study to measure what each intern contributed to the Coast Guard’s efforts.

NobleReach and the Coast Guard have a memorandum of understanding for five years, so the goal is to expand on this internship program and collaborate more. With other government partners, NobleReach will take on more interns this summer, as government’s interest in internship programs increases, Bixby shared.

Wofford said being a mentor means a lot to him, and he hopes the interns will gain as much from the experience as the Coast Guard will gain from their innovative perspectives.

“I hope that this experience gives them a passion and desire to want to contribute and serve, whether it be directly with the government or as a part of that public-private sector partnership in the future,” Wofford shared.