|
Gregory Jenkins Email: gjenkins@umd.edu Affilliation: College Park Scholars: Earth, Life, and Time The Aurora Borealis, An Index of Electric Currents in the High-Latitude Ionosphere Project: Greg's project interpreted spikes in electromagnetic field of the aurora borealis in order to predict solar flares in the future. He obtained his data from a firm which tracks the electromagnetic energy present in the aurora borealis. The goal of his project was to form a mathematical equation in order to predict solar flares in the future relative to the aurora borealis. Benefits: Greg stated that he learned about space weather, space winds, and the aurora borealis while conducting his project. He felt that he had intellectually grown through conducting his project. Obstacles: A major obstacle Greg had to overcome was developing the self-discipline to work on his project. His project was not an internship through a firm, so he had to learn how to be self-motivated in order to complete his project. |
|
Rachel Volke Email: rvolke@umd.edu Affilliation: College Park Scholars: Earth, Life, and Time Shock Trauma Center Project: Rachel volunteered at the shock trauma center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. She assisted the nursing staff and technicians in stocking and maintaining the Trauma OR rooms. She also observed trauma cases, surgeries, and doctors performing medical procedures in action. Benefits: Rachel really enjoyed being able to work with people and have the opportunity to view all of the trauma cases that came in. It was the first time she had experienced seeing these sorts of cases so close. Because of her experience, she left with an assurance that she wanted her future profession to be in the medical field. Obstacles: One of the things Rachel did not like about working in the trauma center was not having the training to treat patients herself. Most of what she did was in more of a bystander position, and she really looks forward to being able to actually help patients herself. This inspired her to work hard to become a doctor who could actually help patients herself, instead of just watching. |
|
Hunter Nelson Email: hnelson@umd.edu Affilliation: College Park Scholars: Science, Discovery, and the Universe Windtunnel Instrumentation Synchronization Project: Hunter worked to improve the accuracy of measurements taken from a windtunnel. He explained two techniques for synchronizing instruments which are Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP). NTP uses computers to calculate time increments and is comparable to the program used in Windows clocks. There are tiers in this system beginning with tier 0, the computer that keeps the actual time, tier one, a computer which is synchronized to tier 0, tier 2, a computer which is synchronized to tier 1, and so forth. He worked with a tier one computer and calculated the time synchronization to about 31 microseconds using NTP. When using PTP, he was able to calculate a much more accurate measurement because it employs additional hardware to work to submicroseconds. With PTP, his measurements increased in accuracy to being only nanoseconds apart. This is a very small difference and very useful in collecting data. Benefits: Hunter learned about the whole project he was a small part of aiding. He also improved his programming skills when given software that he had to learn to command. Learning new computer codes to make his software work also helped him to grow intellectually, and he feels like he learned much from this project. Obstacles: A big obstacle for Hunter was learning new computer codes and having patience to make his timing accurate. He currently needs to figure out how to get the very accurate time stamp he acquired from his computers to the instruments they are supposed to aid in accuracy, and this is presenting a challenge to him at the immediate moment. |
