AAS - 2019

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results. At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2018 and 2019 NITARP teams attended the 2019 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2018 class was presenting results and the 2019 class was starting up. We had alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:

2018 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Education Poster - Rebull, "A Way to Categorize Programs that Bring Data to the Classroom"

Returning Alumni Teams:

Quotes

[student:] There is no way that I could have even imagined doing a project like this without the guidance that I had. Now, after the fact I believe that with some fluency in python that I could do our project in a mere fraction of the time that we spent collaboratively. The fact that others had to depend on me getting my work done was a big motivation. Another was my passion for learning, especially when I had the opportunity to apply it. I could not have learned or applied anything of this project without guidance, I would simply be wandering blindly.
[student:] I think one of the most interesting things I did was having conversations with college students and their posters. The reality of the experience was more than I could have imagined, having the opportunity to have one to one conversations with people making substantial research in the field was more than what I expected.
I was very excited to learn what research we will be doing. All of the information about the program itself and what is expected of us was very good on Sunday. I do not think the reality of the experience has really hit me yet but I’m sure it will over the next several months. It just seems unreal that we will be using data from the Kepler and Spitzer telescopes and possibly Chandra as well to look into an area of star formation and try to discover new young stars! Truly amazing to be a part of this!
I was never able to pursue any formal instruction in astronomy so it always seemed out of reach and astronomers seemed beyond my scope. This experience opened my eyes and alleviated a lot of the hesitancy I felt in pursuing something I’ve always enjoyed and been passionate about.
[student:] Don’t be afraid to ask a dumb question. Ask it 10 times if you must. It’s better to look like an idiot and get the answer you need than to go in blind. I would not have been able to do this by myself. Guidance helped me get back on track when I was completely lost. What kept me going was my passion for astrophysics.

AAS - 2019

Quotes

Related Teams