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Summer Visit - 2015 - IC417

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 IC417 team came to visit in June 2015. The core team educators attended, plus 8 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] This experience definitely changed the way I thought about astronomy. I used to think of astronomy as a pretty limited field, but now I see that there are so many ways to connect my love for space and astronomy with engineering, spacecrafts, computer science and even writing. Before this experience I thought that the day to day routine of an astronomer was something I was not too interested in, but seeing the variety in jobs that astronomers can have completely changed my outlook.
  • [student:] The best thing about this trip was getting out in the real world. I feel like I have such an advantage over my classmates now because I have done this. I know what I can do and that will just make growing up so much easier/more exciting by having an idea of what I can do.
  • The students always impress me. This year they exceeded expectations in their ability to make their computers to what they needed them to do. I was surprised by how efficiently the group attacked the various tasks in the research process. I feel very good about where we are and I am optimistic that we’ll follow through with some nice results.
  • Astronomy research often involves using public astronomy archives, and sometimes it only involves using archives. Success in astronomy is not just a result of brilliance (though brilliance doesn’t hurt). Success also requires quite a bit of persistence.
  • [student:] The most important/interesting thing I learned was that engineering is more creative than I ever thought. I learned how to do actual research, which was super useful, but going to the JPL and seeing the products of science and engineering together opened my mind to the possibility of being an engineer.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2015 - IC417