The Complete Undergraduate Research Experience Inspired by NASA’s Microgravity University
- Paper number
IAC-07-E1.5.06
- Author
Dr. Timothy M. Ritter, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Tala Smith, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
In a typical undergraduate research experience the student is often assigned a small portion of a more comprehensive endeavor. While they may complete their assigned portion of the project, the larger investigation is one that was active prior to the student’s arrival in the lab and will continue once the student has left. What we present here are the results, lessons, and experiences from a multidisciplinary, multicampus, undergraduate microgravity research program that requires the students to go from the idea stage to final report writing in one year. Over the past five years The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) have annually joined together to form a team of undergraduate students to participate in NASA’s highly competitive Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program (RGSFOP). Each fall semester a new undergraduate team joins together with an idea for an experiment in microgravity and to write a proposal for submission to the RGSFOP. This student written proposal includes a detailed description of the experiment and equipment to be utilized, a comprehensive budget, and a companion outreach program. If accepted, the team has only a few months to design and build any required equipment, fine-tune the experiment itself, and prepare an extensive technical document for NASA engineers to review. Finally, the team flies the experiment on board NASA’s C-9 aircraft in Houston, Texas. After the flight, the data and flight samples are returned to the home universities for analysis and comparison to ground truth samples. As a conclusion to the project the team comes together once more, usually in the summer, to write a final report for submission to NASA. During the entire process the team is also conducting a vigorous outreach program. In order to further enhance our program and stimulate team work, the UNCP/UNCC collaboration has looked at this valuable research experience as a way to include students from other disciplines, tapping into the skills that non-technical students possess. Over the years we have incorporated students from the departments of Mass Communications, Business Administration, Native American Studies, Education, and a Public Relations major from yet a third UNC campus. We believe our program, because of its unique features, provides the student with a much broader, more comprehensive, and more stimulating research experience than the traditional program.
- Abstract document