Broadening Student Research Experiences
Through a Summer Exchange Program across Campuses
Abhijit Nagchaudhuri ,University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Professor, Engineering and Aviation Science
Terry Teays, Johns Hopkins University
Assistant Director of Maryland Space Grant Consortium
Guangming Chen, Morgan State University
Associate Professor , Industrial Engineering
Mary Bowden, University of Maryland College Park
Visiting 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
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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
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
Outline
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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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
Outline
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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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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.
1.
2.
3.
Development of a Systems Engineering Education Program at Morgan State University for NASA and
the Aerospace Industry Workforce Pipeline Initiative.
Using a Low-Fidelity Simulator to Gauge Eye Reactions in Differing Weather Conditions
Using Matlab /Simulink to Simulate the Performance of a Direct Receiver
1.
2.
Issues, Challenges, and Applications of Kite Aerial Imaging
Experimental Prototype of a Remote Controlled Platform to Monitor Water Quality Data
1.
2.
3.
System Upgrades to a Small Planetary Rover
Near Space Payloads and Balloon Launch Operations
Commercial Aviation Fuel Consumption due to Flight Delays & Rerouting
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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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
ASSESSMENT
•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)
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.)
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
ASSESSMENT
Survey results of whether the students felt they
learned about the capabilities of the host institution
Survey results of whether the overall experience was
beneficial for the students
Survey results of whether the students felt the
experience provided them with additional skills
10
8
6
4
2
0
Str Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree Str Disagree
10
8
6
4
2
0
Str Agree
Str Agree
Survey results of whether the students felt they had an
opportunity work in a research area that were not
avialable at their home institution
5
4
3
2
1
0
Agree
Neutral Disagree
Str
Disagree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Str
Disagree
Survey results of whether the students felt the
experience paved the way for their future endeavors
5
4
3
2
1
0
6
4
2
0
Str Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Str
Disagree
Str Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
Str
Disagree
Summer Exchange Program – Final Presentation at GSFC
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
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.
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky
2010 ASEE Conference and Exposition, June 20-23, Louisville, Kentucky