Current Interns

Zoe Brooker

Geography (GIS) Student, Biology Minor, Class of 2025, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisor: Dr. Stephan O’Brien

Zoe is from Port Saint Lucie, Florida and moved to Tampa last January to complete her bachelor’s degree. When she graduates, she intends to start a Master’s degree program in oceanography to further pursue her passion for seafloor mapping. She knew after taking a marine science class that seafloor mapping had her hooked, and she wanted to further understand how different aspects of the ocean interact with each other.

Emily Brown

Environmental Engineering Student, Class of 2027, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisors: Chad Lembke, Matt Hommeyer

Emily, originally from Oklahoma City, relocated to Tampa in 2020 with their family. They are currently pursuing their undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. At COMIT, Emily provides CAD support for projects, including their ongoing work on a LiDAR sensor that will be used for detecting the presence of algae blooms in water. Emily has been passionate about marine conservation from a young age, and is excited to continue to work in the field of aquatic sciences.

Grace Humphrey

Marine Biology Student, Class of 2025, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisor: Jay Law

Grace is from Naples, Florida and moved to St. Petersburg to attend the University of South Florida. Currently, she is working with the Ocean Circulation Laboratory/COMIT at the USF College of Marine Science. She plans on earning her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine after getting her undergraduate and specializing in marine and aquatic animal rehabilitation. Her main research assistance is in helping prepare two large GPS SPAR buoys that will be deployed this summer which will provide valuable data about the ocean circulation along the West Florida shelf. She has been helping with the building of the buoys themselves, testing mounting mechanisms for various antennae and sensors that will be installed on the two buoy systems, as well as mounting electronics for testing.

Alumni

Jaden Crute

Mechanical Engineering Student, Class of 2024, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisors: Dr. Kris Krasnosky, Chad Lembke

Jaden was born and raised in South Florida, ultimately moving to Tampa to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Through an undergraduate advisor, they learned about the Marine Engineering field and quickly decided to explore it further. In January 2023, Jaden joined COMIT to work on refurbishing and building out an uncrewed surface vehicle known as TREVOR. They were tasked with working to get the vehicle back in working condition, and to a point where it could be controlled both remotely with a joystick controller and autonomously using waypoints. Moving forward, the goal is to explore mapping vehicle applications for the vehicle, such as the ability to gather bathymetric data using multibeam sensors and report back to create a visual model. A completely new 2.0 version of the vehicle is also in the works.

View Jaden’s Resume (pdf)

Samantha D’Angelo

Marine Biology Student, Class of 2024, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisor: Jay Law

Samantha is from Naples, Florida and moved to St. Petersburg in 2020 to attend the University of South Florida. She is currently employed with the Ocean Circulation Laboratory/COMIT at the USF College of Marine Science and plans on earning her master’s in physical oceanography at CMS after completing her undergraduate degree. Her research assistance is with the preparation of two large geodetic SPAR buoys for deployment this summer. She has been assisting in the assembly of the buoys themselves, mounting electronics for testing, and designing and testing mounting systems for a variety of antennas and sensors to be deployed on the two buoy systems.

Spring 2024

Katherin Abreus-Rodriguez

Chemistry Student, Class of 2025, University of South Florida

Katherin was born and raised in a small beach town in Havana, Cuba and lived there until the age of 18 when she moved to Florida with her family to find new opportunities. Since a young age, Katherin always had a great appreciation for the environment and the health of the oceans. She hopes that as an intern with COMIT she can team up with other scientists and work together in exciting projects to help with climate change in marine ecosystems, as well as learn more about oceanographic sampling and seafloor mapping techniques.

Riley Benson

Digital Communication & Multimedia Journalism Student, Class of 2024, University of South Florida

Riley is from Naples, Florida and moved to St. Petersburg in 2021 to attend the University of South Florida: Saint Petersburg (USFSP). She is currently working in the USFSP Student Center as their Senior Reservations Manager, where she helped University student organizations and departments book event spaces throughout campus. She also writes for The Crow’s Nest, as their News Editor, and for Her Campus– specializing in USF news, local events, and pop-culture.

Shana Korn

Environmental Science & Psychology Student, Class of 2024, University of South Florida

Shana grew up in the Chicago suburbs before moving to Tampa in 2020 to attend the University of South Florida. She has always been a lover of nature, especially the ocean, and has been interested in conservation efforts since she was young. She is excited to spread her passion of conservation and photography by assisting outreach and communication projects with COMIT.

Fall 2023

Darshan Gummadi

Computer Science Graduate Student, Class of 2023, University of South Florida

COMIT Advisors: Sarah Grasty and Dr. Kris Krasnosky

Darshan, originally from Tirupati, India, pursued his undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication. After completing his undergraduate studies, Darshan furthered his education and enrolled in the Computer Science program at the University of South Florida. With a passion for computers, programming, and creative hobbies like photography and drawing, Darshan brings a diverse skill set to the field. Since joining USF-Tampa in 2022, he has immersed himself in the world of technology. In August 2023, he became a part of COMIT tasked with building a mobile application, called the Vessel Offset Measurement Tool. This application helps reduce the difficulty of manually measuring offsets of GPS antennas and depth sounders for the crowd sourced bathymetry project by making use of Augmented Reality.