The PI, Constantine Deliyannis and collaborators will continue the operation of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at Indiana University. The program brings incoming juniors seniors to Bloomington, IN for 10 weeks during the summer to undertake research with faculty and graduate student mentors. Students also participate in a weeklong observing run on the Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO (WIYN) 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, AZ. Research projects include studies of the properties of star clusters, searches for, and studies of, variable stars, and determination of the chemical composition of stars and star clusters. All students present their results at meetings of the American Astronomical Society.
The broader impact of this program includes the opportunity for promising young scientists to experience research in astronomy, and the resulting encouragement to pursue careers in science. The program aims to recruit underserved minorities and women, and provide them with research experience that can help as they move on to graduate school.
During five summers, we ran a REU-Site program in the Astronomy Department at Indiana University, with six participants each summer. Numerous talented undergraduate students from all around the country had applied for these programs during late winter, and acceptances were sent during the early spring. (A typical student may apply to at least several REU programs, so it is worth commenting on our remarkable acceptance statistics: 52 total offers were made for 30 total slots; of these, we had 15 (!) first-round acceptances, 9 second-, 3 third- and 3 fourth-round acceptances.) Each main program ran for approximately 10 weeks, beginning typically in late May or early June. The goal of the program was to provide a real research experience for each participant, mentored one-on-one by one of our faculty. This would give each participant a taste of what research is like if they were new to research, or broaden their horizons if they had already had previous research experience. Ideally, these experiences would also help inspire them to pursue a career in astronomy or related field, thereby helping to meet national goals to increase the number of citizens choosing a STEM discipline career. During the program, each mentor gave their participant an overview of their project and the scientific motivations behind it, and the participant became proficient in processing, reducing, analyzing, and interpreting their data. (In some cases, the projects involved theory or instrumentation instead of data acquired at a telescope facility.) In so doing, participants usually improved tremendously their knowledge of how computers work and how they can be used to carry out modern astronomical research. The participants had lunch together nearly every day, during which they discussed their projects, thereby gaining skills in scientific communication. Furthermore, typically, each participant gave two somewhat more formal short talks about their work to the entire group (plus mentors) spaced about three weeks apart, plus a final longer formal scientific talk to the entire Astronomy Department. Typically, participants received feedback to help them improve their presentation skills. During the program, discussions were also held jointly with the Physics REU program about strategies for taking the Physics GRE test, for applying to graduate school, and about ethics in science. Faculty and outside speakers also gave talks about their work. Participants also honed their skills in outreach events, when helping, for example, with public open nights at Kirkwood Observatory. Usually early in the program, the participants spent a week at Kitt Peak National Observatory to learn how to take scientific data, usually at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope (sometimes at the WIYN 3.5-meter). In advance of the trip, participants were briefed on how astronomers design a data gathering ("observing") program for a few different types of photometric observing (imaging), including photometric observing (constant, clear conditions) and non-photometric observing. At the WIYN 0.9m, every participant had an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities (opening/closing dome; ensuring alignment; filling the CCD dewar; taking dome flats, sky flats, and biases; and, of course, taking object data), and each participant took turns being "in charge" of acquiring different kinds of astronomical data (with mentor oversight, if necessary). Since at this telescope observers also have to operate the telescope themselves, each participant took turns doing that as well. While at Kitt Peak, several other telescopes were visited and the participants learned about the capabilities, instrumentation, and history of each. Toward the end of the summer program, participants prepared a poster of their results, to be presented at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. At this meeting, participants met many of their cohorts (aspiring undergraduate students) from around the country and went to events specifically aimed at undergraduates. Participants met a variety of astronomers at all levels, they attended a variety of astronomical presentations in diverse fields, and they presented their own results. Post-program feedback helped us tweak improvements to the program; the participants indicated consistently that they enjoyed tremendously and benefited enormously from their Kitt Peak and AAS trips. Of the 30 participants, 20 were men and 10 were women. Prior to the summer program, one had completed freshman year, 14 had completed sophomore year, and 15 had completed junior year. One (woman) was Hispanic. We met our geographic goals of serving Indiana, the neighboring Midwest region, and the country as a whole, while keeping a geographically diverse cohort each and every year. We believe that 24 participants went on to Ph. D. programs (and another went to a Masters program) in astronomy or other STEM disciplines; one of these now holds a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. Such a success rate exceeds our expectations. A few others changed fields (one studies nursing, one went to graduate school in English literature, and one is becoming a high school teacher).
