Meet the LAS Interns

At the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS), collaboration and innovation are at the core of groundbreaking applied research. This year’s interns, hailing from various disciplines, are working alongside experts to push the boundaries of data science, machine learning, programming, and more. Some interns support LAS technical staff in figuring out how to use machine learning models for analysis purposes, while others assist with project management, event planning and communications. These students bring a fresh perspective to the lab, working closely with LAS staff to gain hands-on experience in their respective fields. 

Let’s meet the interns:

• Kanv Khare – Machine Learning Intern
• John Nolan – Programming Intern
• Krish Patel – Security Analysis Intern
• Saanchi Sampath – Technical Communications Intern
• Celia Settlemyer – Event Coordinator Intern
• Hayden White – Data Science Intern

Kanv Khare, Machine Learning Intern

Kanv works with LAS staff on speech-to-text transcription services for noisy audio data that can be integrated into intelligence analyst workflows.

Graduation Year: 2024

Major: Computer Science (Master’s)

Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies: Give me a mountain trail, a tricky puzzle, or a movie full of plot twists, and I’m in my element. You’ll also find me at tech events and conferences, keeping up with the latest and greatest in technology.

Where do you feel like a local?
A spot with fresh air and a good view, or a place with great Wi-Fi and an outlet nearby.

What are your goals after graduation?
I’d like to work on solving impactful real-world problems, attend more conferences, and meet new people with different perspectives.

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
I’ve learnt that bringing together multiple perspectives generally leads to the best solutions. I’ve also learnt that sometimes ideas that seem promising don’t work, but they are just as valuable because they’re often the most insightful.

John Nolan, Programming Intern

John is using his coding skills to contribute to developing software solutions that employ multimodal models to analyze technical data. This semester, he has been working on a tool that enables analysts to review summaries of images in technical data and provide feedback to evaluate model performance.

Graduation Year: 2025

Major: Computer Science (Master’s)

Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies: I lead and play with the Quiz Bowl team at NC State. We compete against other nearby universities in a variety of trivia categories. I am best at math, computer science, geography, and history questions.

Where do you feel like a local?
Right here! I was born and raised in Cary.

What are your goals after graduation?
I plan to stay in the area and continue work as a programmer and software engineer.

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
I have learned a whole lot! On the technical skill side, I have learned about Streamlit, MongoDB, using LLM API calls, prompt engineering, and different types of text and image searches. On the soft skill side, I have learned about collaborating on a coding project, professional communication, and creating requirements with the client.

Krish Patel, Security Analyst Intern

Krish supports LAS’s machine learning experts by developing model scanning technology for intelligence community applications. He is developing a common framework to run a variety of machine learning models with various tasks. LAS will use this framework to dynamically analyze the models to evaluate if they exhibit malicious behavior.

Graduation Year: 2026

Major: BS/MS Computer Science

Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies: Golf, Weightlifting

Where do you feel like a local?
Cary, North Carolina

What are your goals after graduation?
Pursue a career in defense technology, working on systems that enhance national security capabilities.

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
Gained expertise in Hugging Face’s transformers library.

Saanchi Sampath, Technical Communications Intern

Saanchi applies her expertise in copywriting and copyediting to create news articles for the LAS website, focusing on research advancements in artificial intelligence.

Graduation Year: May 2025

Major: English
Minor: Statistics, Music

Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies: I am vice president of the chess club at NC State and enjoy organizing and competing in competitive events. Outside of this, I am an avid reader and enjoy art museums, hiking, and playing the piano.

Where do you feel like a local?
I feel most like a local in Boston — it’s where I was born.

What are your goals after graduation?
I plan to stay in the Triangle area and work as a technical writer in the tech sphere.

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
My time at LAS has taught me a great deal about how to write about complex topics for broad audiences. In addition to this, I have learned about journalism, artificial intelligence, and communication within government spaces.

Celia Settlemyer, Event Coordinator Intern

Celia assists with the coordination of a variety of LAS events, including SCADS and the yearly LAS Research Symposium. Celia ensures that symposiums and collaborative meetings run smoothly and foster productive conversations.

Graduation Year: 2024

Major: Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies: I enjoy gardening, hiking, and spending quality time with my dog, Arthur.

Where do you feel like a local?
Morganton, NC

What are your goals after graduation?
I would like to continue to work in event planning, ideally in the Raleigh area.

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
Throughout my time at LAS, I have helped coordinate various conferences, symposiums, and other events. I have learned how to communicate with vendors, create and monitor budget plans, and create memorable experiences for a diverse range of attendees.

Hayden White, Data Science Intern

Hayden applies his data science expertise to projects like EyeReckon, an AI-powered app that identifies objects and activities in video data. His work spans training object detection and image classification models, improving a video processing pipeline, and helping to test and debug LAS software.

Graduation Year: 2024

Major: Physics

Minor: Computer Programming

Hobbies: Game development, art, cooking, and snowboarding

Where do you feel like a local? Atlantic Beach, NC

What have you learned so far through your internship at LAS?
It’s more of a question of what haven’t I learned. Given my [physics] major, I didn’t have classes relating to what I’m doing now regarding technical skills, so LAS has pushed me to learn everything from full-stack app development to my current work in creating models to identify different unique objects from cameras that are hilariously bad quality. My time at LAS felt like a second minor to me more than an internship. 

What are your goals after graduation?
I’m currently applying for jobs! I’m interested in using my analytic and critical thinking skills in data analysis and software engineering roles at the junior level. I’d like to leverage my time at LAS for the software development experience and showcase the wide variety of tasks I’ve done here that have provided me with many different ways of approaching problems.

About LAS

LAS is a partnership between the intelligence community and NC State that develops innovative technology and tradecraft to help solve mission-relevant problems. Founded in 2013 by the National Security Agency and NC State, each year LAS brings together collaborators from three sectors – industry, academia and government – to conduct research that has a direct impact on national security.