Working at SOI | Capitol College

Think that the SOI is only for astronautical engineering majors? Think again!

The SOI is currently involved in a broad range of technical support categories for NASA and industry, therefore the work supported by the SOI requires a broad range of skills and academic knowledge. Recruits come from all different programs and backgrounds, and a particular student’s academic pursuits are matched with SOI work opportunities, ensuring that everyone involved learns to the best of their abilities. The SOI recruits Capitol College students from all programs, specifically from the following academic disciplines:

Astronautical Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Electronics Engineering Technology
Information Assurance
Software Engineering

SOI students are trained to perform work under general supervision as follows:

Astronautical engineering students are mostly assigned to a flight operations team to train as satellite controllers and mission planners.
Computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering and software engineering students are mostly assigned to a development project team such as designing, developing, testing, and operations integration for new satellite ground control systems.
Electronics engineering technology and information assurance students are mostly involved in systems administration and information technology security tasks.

Internships

Over 80 students have worked with SOI since its inception, averaging 25 each academic semester. The number of students in the co-op and internship programs has grown each year; students selected are the most promising in their majors, based on their academic performance and recommendations from their professors. In any given semester, more than half of SOI students are on the Dean’s list.

Each semester, approximately five students are selected into the internship program. Qualified applicants must:

have junior or senior standing
be recommended for outstanding job and class performance
maintain a high GPA
be enrolled full-time in a program leading to an engineering degree with space applications

All interns will go through an interview process. The interns are all employed in one of our programs and they are provided with tuition aid currently funded by Capitol College.