{"412371":{"#nid":"412371","#data":{"type":"news","title":"\u201cReal Research\u201d Summer Program for High School Students Returns to Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELast summer, Georgia Tech launched a program that brought nearly 40 high-school students face-to-face with real, goal-oriented university research. Known as the Science, Technology and Engineering Pipeline (STEP), the ambitious program is returning for a second year, having won praise from both participating students and their teachers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAll STEP projects directly contribute to ongoing undergraduate- or graduate-level research work. This year, the program is conducted under the auspices of the Georgia Tech Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) and the NASA Georgia Space Grant Consortium (GSGC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two-month program is free to those who are accepted. The Atlanta-area students work in teams, advised by Georgia Tech research scientists and graduate students who serve as mentors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cInterest in the program has been strong all spring, and applications have come in at a pretty high rate,\u201d said Kelly Griendling, a Georgia Tech research engineer who designed and directed the STEP program. \u201cI\u0027ve gotten a lot of emails that basically say, \u2018I heard from my friend that this was a great program, and I\u0027d like to do it.\u2019 \u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast summer\u2019s two-month program, she explained, dropped a wide range of knotty aerospace and vehicle related problems into the laps of student teams. The teams worked on portions of these real-world projects, and what the students achieved went to advance those projects. The students could ask for help from their mentors when necessary, but most of the time they worked on their own.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKelly Ingle, a teacher at Kennesaw Mountain High School who is familiar with STEP, believes that the students who participated in last summer\u2019s program experienced \u201creal life,\u201d gaining independence, improving problem-solving abilities, and learning to be team players in actual research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI have two students in my current classes who attended STEP last summer,\u201d Ingle said. \u201cWatching their approach to research this semester, it\u2019s evident to me that the STEP experience was beneficial.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe atmosphere in the STEP research laboratories last summer seemed both highly enthusiastic and very serious. On one late-July afternoon, a visitor to STEP found a 10th grade student working at a computer developing robotic-vision capability software for a U.S. Navy autonomous boat concept. A few feet away, two 10th grade students were using a CAD workstation to explore a NASA project that aims to move an asteroid millions of miles through space to a moon orbit.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENearby, an 11th grader was trouble-shooting a hybrid-electric aircraft engine. At the next desk his colleagues were working on the hybrid engine itself, which had been designed to power an innovative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was being developed by yet another STEP team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast summer\u2019s youthful researchers seemed to like STEP\u2019s throw-them-in-the-deep-end approach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENick Tysver, a 10th grader from Lithia Springs High School who was on the autonomous boat\/robotics vision team, told a visitor last summer: \u0022It was really interesting \u2013 on the first day the mentors were like, \u0027This is your project, get going.\u2019 That isn\u0027t at all like high school, where they inch you along \u2013 here they get you going in the right direction, and you know you\u0027re going to end up doing fine.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProjects for the 2015 STEP session haven\u2019t been finalized. They will likely include both established and new research topics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBoth new students and some returning students will participate in this summer\u2019s program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGSGC is thrilled to be working with ASDL to expand the highly effective program to multiple labs in Aerospace Engineering,\u201d said Professor Stephen Ruffin, director of the GSGC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough summer 2015 applications have recently closed, interested parties can contact Kelly Griendling (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kelly.griendling@asdl.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekelly.griendling@asdl.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) to inquire about applications for future semesters.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003EDuring the 2014 session, most students participated on one of six teams:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Hybrid Electric team worked on an airborne hybrid-electric propulsion system designed by a Georgia Tech graduate student.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe UAV Design team was tasked with designing an unmanned aircraft that would be powered by the hybrid electric engine.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Asteroid Capture team worked on a NASA plan to redirect an asteroid to a stable orbit around the moon, where astronauts can later visit it for research purposes.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Quadrotor team was required to assemble and test several kits for quadrotors \u2013 small helicopters propelled by four propellers \u2013 and then design, build and test a custom quadrotor.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Rotor\/Propeller Testing team performed a series of wind-tunnel tests on various motor-propeller combinations, to gather data and make performance predictions that can be used to support vehicle design efforts.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Autonomous Boat team focused on developing software code for an autonomous boat design, as part of a Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC) project.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contact\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Rick Robinson\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELast summer, Georgia Tech launched a program that brought nearly 40 high-school students face-to-face with real, goal-oriented university research. Known as the Science, Technology and Engineering Pipeline (STEP), the ambitious program is returning for a second year, having won praise from both participating students and their teachers.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A program that brings high-school students face-to-face with real, goal-oriented university research will be returning this summer."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2015-06-09 09:46:32","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:33","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"412191":{"id":"412191","type":"image","title":"Hybrid-electric","body":null,"created":"1449254211","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:51","changed":"1475895142","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 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02:52:22","alt":"STEP-program","file":{"fid":"202340","name":"step30a.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/step30a_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/step30a_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1906005,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/step30a_0.jpg?itok=LmXkUWpp"}}},"media_ids":["412191","412211","412311","412221","412241","412261","412281","412291"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1325","name":"aerospace"},{"id":"100921","name":"ASDL"},{"id":"327","name":"high school"},{"id":"167505","name":"STEP"},{"id":"167441","name":"student research"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 894-6986\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}