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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:] 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.
  • I don’t think what we did at CA could have been accomplished online. We needed to be able to point and write on a side board and look at each other’s work. Yes, these things can technically be done online, but the time lost to setting up or executing those simple tasks makes it prohibitive to actually being productive and having real whole group interactivity.
  • [student:] The most important thing that I learned during my time at Caltech was definitely the importance of collaboration during large scale projects. I previously thought that scientific research was incredibly daunting and fiercely independent. But I learned how vital teamwork and a strong mentor is in the field of science is.
  • [student: This experience] made me love the subject more than I ever thought I would have.
  • [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!

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN