• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The HIPS AGN team came to visit in June 2016. The core team educators attended, plus 8 students.

Quotes

  • I wasn’t expecting as many “well, let’s try this” side roads. I thought the process would be more linear, but this felt more authentic somehow. You don’t know the answer, and you don’t have a clear roadmap for finding the answer, but you have some background and can use that to start reaching towards an answer.
  • [student: What qualities do you think are important to be an astronomer?] I think an ability to collaborate with others by sharing your own ideas clearly and being resourceful with others' time and skills is essential. I also think creativity in order to think past unexpected obstacles is important, as well as an ability to make connections (in order to interpret data or draw conclusions). Finally, lots of patience and persistence!
  • [student:] [The] on-site work was the most beneficial to this project. Communication was so vital to articulate the steps of the process as well as constantly checking your work along the way to match numbers.
  • [student:] The work carried out over the trip most definitely couldn’t have been done with the same effectiveness had it been done online. Having that face to face contact, learning alongside of your fellow researchers, being able to compare work then and there, and being able to ask questions as they come is something that you just can’t quite replicate over the Internet or a telephone.
  • Astronomy has some of the kindest and most passionate scientists around. They are great fun to work with.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN