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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa

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 LLAMMa team came to visit in July 2016. The 3 core team educators attended, plus 11 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] I think patience and determination are two of the most important qualities for an astronomer to have because in astronomy there is typically a wait time for certain data to be collected and observed. It also takes a lot of determination to be able to go through so many sheets of data that may or may not be what you're looking for.
  • [student:] Real astronomy is a lot of numbers and a lot of work. I didn’t realize quite how interactive it was with the engineering, I thought they were more separated.
  • [student:] The most surprising thing that I learned and did not anticipate was the amount of diversity that was present. I would have never guessed that you didn’t need some sort of astronomical background to be a part of the astronomical community.
  • [student:] This experience most definitely changed the way that I think about astronomy. It allowed me to see that not all the data that is received is the most accurate due to the limitations of the instruments and many other objects in space.
  • Astronomers need to be independently motivated (be able to work alone with a strong drive) and to also work well in teams (and not just with other scientists). They are problem solvers and love a good mystery. Also, they need to have the patience to stick with a project for years. And they should be able to juggle more than one project at once.

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Summer Visit - 2016 - LLAMMa