Broadening Student Research Experiences Through a Summer Exchange Program across Campuses Abhijit...

Broadening Student Research ExperiencesThrough a Summer Exchange Program across Campuses

Abhijit Nagchaudhuri ,University of Maryland Eastern ShoreProfessor, Engineering and Aviation Science

Terry Teays, Johns Hopkins UniversityAssistant Director of Maryland Space Grant Consortium

Guangming Chen, Morgan State University Associate Professor , Industrial Engineering

Mary Bowden, University of Maryland College ParkVisiting Assistant Professor , Aerospace Engineering

Richard Henry, Johns Hopkins University Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of Maryland Space Grant

Consortium

2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky


National Space Grant and Maryland Space Grant Consortium

National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program• NASA initiated the National Space Grant College and Fellowship

Program, also known as Space Grant, in 1989. • Space Grant is a national network of colleges and universities. • The Space Grant national network includes over 850 affiliates from

universities, colleges, industry, museums, science centers, and state agencies. • The affiliates belong to one of 52 consortia in all 50 states, the

District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Maryland Space Grant Consortium Affiliate Members• The Johns Hopkins University (lead institution)• The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory• Morgan State University • The Space Telescope Science Institute• Towson University • Hagerstown Community College• The University of Maryland Eastern Shore• The University of Maryland College Park • The University of Maryland Baltimore County • The United States Naval Academy

http://www.jhu.edu/

http://www.jhuapl.edu/

http://www.morgan.edu/

http://www.stsci.edu/resources/

http://www.towson.edu/

http://www.hagerstowncc.edu/

http://www.umes.edu/

http://www.umd.edu/

http://umbc.edu/

http://www.usna.edu/homepage.php


Outline

• Maryland Space Grant Consortium (MDSGC) was one of the awardees of the NASA Minority Serving Institution Partnership Development program of 2009 – 2010. Facilitated by MDSGC leadership at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and active support from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

• Faculty and undergraduate students at three member institutions of MDSGC have partnered to implement a one year collaborative action plan to promote experiential learning and research efforts consistent with NASA’s strategic enterprises in space and earth sciences through this venture.

• Two of the participating institutions, University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Morgan State University (MSU) are Historically Black Institutions (HBI) and the third, University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), serves a large number of minority students.


Outline

• A major component of the partnership effort has been focused on a novel student exchange program among the three campuses.

• Three undergraduate engineering students were selected from each of the participating campuses to spend eight weeks of summer under the supervision of faculty advisors with active NASA related research projects at one of the other campuses.

• At the end of the eight weeks, each student presented their work to NASA personnel and faculty members from MDSGC affiliate institutions and other invited guests at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) at Greenbelt.

• Active involvement of MDSGC leadership at JHU, faculty at UMES, MSU and UMCP, and personnel of the Education Division of GSFC helped students.


Summer Exchange Program across Campuses

National Space Grant College and Fellowship (NSGCF) Minority Serving Institution Partnership

Program

• Request for Proposals – December , 2008• MDSGC planning meeting in January• Decision to develop summer exchange program involving

UMES, MSU, and UMCP with support from JHU and NASA GSFC • Proposal Due - February , 2009• Award Announcement – April, 2009• Summer exchange program - June – July ( 8 weeks)• Final presentation at NASA GSFC • Follow –up activities and outcomes assessment - continuing


Summer Exchange Program - Framework

• Three US citizen undergraduate engineering students were identified at each of partnering institutions MSU, UMES, and UMCP to participate in the summer exchange program : MSU - 1. Ms. India Jacobs , 2. Mr. Jonathan Skeete, 3. Mr. Dayvon Green UMES - 1. Mr. Adam Morris, 2. Mr. Jonathan Morris, 3. Mr. Benjamin Phillips UMCP - 1. Mr. Darren Taillie, 2. Mr. Jarred Young, 3. Mr. Xavier Pratt. • Program committee members from partnering institutions who served as Co- PI’s

identified relevant projects at their respective institutions that were consistent with NASA’s strategic enterprises in earth and space sciences, as well as willing faculty mentors to host exchange students. Projects at MSU 1. Development of a Systems Engineering Education Program at Morgan State University for

NASA and the Aerospace Industry Workforce Pipeline Initiative.2. Using a Low-Fidelity Simulator to Gauge Eye Reactions in Differing Weather Conditions 3. Using Matlab /Simulink to Simulate the Performance of a Direct Receiver Projects at UMES4. Issues, Challenges, and Applications of Kite Aerial Imaging5. Experimental Prototype of a Remote Controlled Platform to Monitor Water Quality Data Projects at UMCP 6. System Upgrades to a Small Planetary Rover7. Near Space Payloads and Balloon Launch Operations8. Commercial Aviation Fuel Consumption due to Flight Delays & Rerouting• MDSGC Asst. Director/Director at JHU took care of the assignments. JHU also had

the fiscal oversight and the program committee members at the partnering institutions facilitated the boarding and lodging of the exchange students.


Summer Exchange Program - Objectives

• The students would be exposed to a broader range of engineering projects and techniques; • The students would learn about the facilities and expertise at the other institutions;• The students would learn about graduate offerings in engineering and related STEM disciplines at other institutions;• The students would receive the benefits of exciting, hands-on research projects; • The students would increase their contacts with other students and faculty in engineering;

• The students would get exposure to NASA GSFC and career advancement opportunities

at NASA;• The students would get an opportunity to work with NASA scientists and engineers and collaborators from other federal agencies at other institutions;• The students will learn to adapt to different campus cultures and working with various people in diverse communities to develop important life-skills besides honing their academic and engineering skills • The potential for greater faculty collaboration among the institutions was identified as a possible additional benefit.


Summer Exchange Program - Outcomes

• All nine exchange students indicated that their summer experiences were interesting and beneficial to their future career development.

• By being exposed to hands-on research projects that were closely aligned to NASA’s strategic enterprises in earth and space sciences, these students have not only enhanced their problem solving abilities and research capabilities but have gained a better understanding of workforce needs of NASA.

• MSU and UMCP are close to NASA GSFC at Greenbelt and NASA GSFC’s Wallops flight Facility is about 40 miles from UMES. This proximity allowed some of the exchange students to work closely with NASA engineers and scientists in addition to their assigned faculty mentors during the summer.


Summer Exchange Program - Outcomes

• A tour of the Greenbelt facilities arranged for the summer exchange students provided an excellent overview of how large scale projects are executed in multidisciplinary teams in a systems engineering framework.

• The students got an opportunity to present their work at the conclusion of the project at NASA GSFC, Greenbelt to an audience consisting of the faculty mentors, MDSGC directors, and NASA personnel, and other engineers. The experience of presenting before a professional audience and answering a variety of questions reinforced the importance of effective communication skills to the students, and the pivotal role it plays in professional life.


ASSESSMENT

Questionnaire :

1. What (if any) were the principle benefits to you from participating in this program?e

2. What (if any) were things that you would like to have seen done better for this program?

3. Have you given presentations about your research during the summer, other than at the research seminar at the end of the summer? If so, please give details.

4. Have any publications resulted from your research effort? If so, please give details such as title, authors, and where published.

5. Describe how your experience affected your interest in working in the field of aerospace engineering (and/or NASA, in particular).

6. Have you participated in other NASA student programs? (If so, please give a brief description.)

• Faculty mentors at each of the partnering institution assessed the students on a formative (weekly) and summative ( end of 8 weeks) basis

• JHU Asst. Director surveyed the participants at the conclusion • Some of the survey questions were open ended ( shown below), rest were

likert scale ratings ( shown in the next slide)


ASSESSMENT

Survey results of whether the students felt the experience provided them with additional skills

02468

10

Str Agree Agree Neutral Disagree StrDisagree

Survey results of whether the students felt they had an opportunity work in a research area that were not

avialable at their home institution

0246


Survey results of whether the students felt the experience paved the way for their future endeavors

012345


Survey results of whether the overall experience was beneficial for the students

02468

10

Str Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Str Disagree

Survey results of whether the students felt they learned about the capabilities of the host institution

012345



Summer Exchange Program – Final Presentation at GSFC


ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We gratefully acknowledge the support from NASA through grant # NNG05GE74H to Johns Hopkins University. We would like to thank Ms. Janie Nall at GSFC for working with the project team from the inception of the project and for arranging the research seminar at GSFC. The project team would also like to thank Mr. Geoff Bland (NASA GSFC’s Wallops Flight Facility) and Mr. Dillard Menchan(Chief, Equal Opportunity Programs at GSFC) took time out of their busy schedule to listen to the presentations and provide advice and words of encouragement to the students at the research seminar. Dr. Keith Hargrove was the team member from MSU during the writing of the proposal; upon his departure from MSU, Dr. Chen became the representative from MSU. We would also like to thank all the faculty mentors at MSU, UMCP, and UMES who worked with the students. The summer exchange students Ms. India Jacobs, Mr. Jonathan Skeete, Mr. Dayvon Green (all from MSU); Mr. Jonathan Beatus, Mr. Adam Morris, Mr. Benjamin Phillips (all from UMES); Mr. Jarred Young, Mr. Xavier Pratt, and Mr. Darren Taillie (all from UMCP) did a splendid job over the summer; their efforts are also gratefully acknowledged.


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