91制片厂

For members of a team of听undergraduates and recent alumni from the 91制片厂, their student experiences have been out of this world.

In between their class schedule and time spent with friends in the past year or two, they鈥檝e worked behind the scenes on NASA's听Parker Solar Probe mission to study the sun鈥檚 corona and solar flares. They鈥檝e helped to lay the groundwork so that 91制片厂 can successfully host the science operations center that will process and store the data from two of the instruments aboard the probe.

This team of four 鈥� Myles Johnson 鈥�18, Evin O鈥橲hea 鈥�18, Ethan Davis 鈥�20 and Asher Merrill 鈥�20 鈥� has provided valuable assistance and technical input that their supervisor, Jonathan Niehof, a research scientist at the relies upon. When the data starts pouring in from the probe鈥檚 , it will be compressed and raw;听essentially, it won鈥檛 make any sense. The group has听been writing code that will take that data and translate it to an understandable format, which scientists can then use to further their understanding of the sun鈥檚 corona and the solar wind.

鈥淚t is phenomenally cool to be able to work on something in space. I never dreamed I'd be working on a space project, but I've always been fantastically interested in this sort of thing."

But it鈥檚 more than just writing code: They're looking at the bigger picture and working to find听solutions to potential technological problems in the data acquisition and translation.

鈥淛onathan gives me the freedom to investigate solutions to technological problems in interesting ways,鈥� says Merrill. 鈥淚t is phenomenally cool to be able to work on something in space. I never dreamed I鈥檇 be working on a space project but I鈥檝e always been fantastically interested in this sort of thing.鈥�

Davis has been interested in space science for a long time, too. He鈥檚 previously worked at a NASA summer camp at Wallops Island, Virginia, teaching middle-school students about space. He spent an听entire summer working with Niehof on the project, and he鈥檒l continue working part-time during the school year.

鈥淲orking with the students is rewarding for a lot of reasons,鈥� Niehof says. 鈥淧articularly during the summer, they have an ability to focus in on the project without all the meetings, telecommunications听and other demands that can distract more senior staff. They bring a听fresh set of eyes to the project, so we're constantly working to be sure everything in our processes is clear and understandable. And since they're spending time in the classroom and often tuned in to new technology, they're exposing me to new ideas and approaches that I wouldn't necessarily see otherwise.鈥�

This is not your average work-study position, a fact not lost on these four.

鈥淭his experience has greatly helped my career,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淢y work with the Parker Solar Probe led to a summer position at the , and so when it came time to find a job after graduation, I was very successful and had several job offers from which to choose.鈥�

Johnson adds that the experience provided him with many practical skills associated with working on long-term projects, which really expanded his learning opportunities outside his normal classes schedule.

鈥淚 feel lucky to be able to attend 91制片厂,鈥� Merrill says. 鈥淢any of my friends attended other really good schools, but they haven鈥檛 had the research opportunities that I鈥檝e had here. I鈥檓 just grateful for this experience.鈥�