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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

  • [student:] I was least surprised at the amount of trial and error and patience that was required as we began to delve into our data. It’s most definitely not a quick process!
  • [student:] Coming together from all over the nation having the opportunity to collaborate on something greater than ourselves was amazing. I didn’t anticipate becoming so family-like with everyone so quickly. We meshed so well and I’m so thankful I was able to meet those people.
  • [student:] Even though I had to redo my work over 10 times, this still strengthened my skills and provided me extreme happiness in my efforts. I did receive a lot of help from both the students and the teachers. I also provided this same amount of health back to team members. Everyone was a big help rather than just one person.
  • [student:] This experience significantly changed the way I think of astronomers. Before going to Caltech and meeting Varoujan and Luisa, I believed astronomers needed to know everything and could not get anything wrong. However, after listening to many astronomers discuss their jobs, I learned that many times this is not the case. Astronomers often do not know the answers to some of their biggest questions and will sometimes think of theories that are incorrect. However, after realizing this, my respect for astronomers has only increased. Astronomers need to have the willpower to continue to try to solve a problem and the intelligence to discover what they do not know.
  • There were huge benefits to working together in person for a week! We got to know each other, which is key to working long distance, especially with a large and diverse group. And before the trip, the group wasn’t really a “group” yet. Now we’ve all worked side-by-side, had discussions, debates, taught each other and learned from each other. I have high hopes for our continued work this summer and fall.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN