HOUSTON – 06 Apr 11
Center Visits: Putting a Face to the Name
By: Heather L. Ogletree
The National Office for the Undergraduate Student Research Project (USRP) is located in Houston at the Johnson Space Center and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA); however, students who intern with USRP can be found at 12 NASA Centers around the nation. Therefore, from time to time the USRP National Office performs center visits in an effort to maintain a more personal relationship with our students and coordinators. So, the second week of March, Anthony Zippay, Project Administrator for USRP, set out to Pasadena and Edwards, Calif., to visit the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and Dryden Flight Research Center.
"This has been the largest spring semester to date for USRP, and approximately a third of our 180 on-site interns are located in California, so it seemed like a great opportunity to interact with a considerable population of our interns and to capture a few of their stories to inspire future generations of students interested in STEM,” said Zippay.
While at JPL, Zippay met with 27 interns for an informal lunch where they could get to know one another and he could get a feel for how their projects were going. “A large percentage of our interns at JPL work on projects pertaining to Space Exploration, particularly the exploration of Mars as well as the rest of the universe,” stated Zippay. “USRP students at JPL pride themselves on their ingenuity and ability to solve problems while researching new ways to explore other worlds.”
Dryden was a little bit of a different affair; this was the first time someone from the National Office had made their way up to Edwards Air Force Base where Dryden is housed. Kendra Titus, Dryden’s on-site USRP Coordinator noted, “The visit went well. It was a good chance for the students and mentors connect with Anthony, and it is nice for them to be able put a face to the name.”
Titus coordinated a time for all of the mentors and students to listen to Zippay talk about their projects, their Technical Reports, NASA policies and how they relate to them within the realm of USRP, and the exciting possibility of interns having more of a competitive edge in the future with NASA’s Pathways Program.
According to Zippay, “At Dryden, you have a large focus on aeronautical research. The aeronautics students...absolutely love the environment out there because you are right in the middle of some of the most cutting edge aeronautics research the country has to offer.”
Furthermore, Zippay was able to film two of our interns in their working environments. This gives applicants and stakeholders, alike, insight about what is going on at Dryden, while giving the interns a chance to practice their public communication skills, which, in turn, serves as professional development. Both Adam Pizzaia, who is working on “Hot Structure Analysis Support” of engineering software packages, and Alice Park, whose project concerns analysis, integrity, and validation of NASA flight data, shared their USRP experiences on tape.
For Zippay, “The most memorable moment was having the opportunity to chat with our current USRP interns. Just seeing the students in person, being able to hear about their experiences and answer their questions face-to-face gave me a thrill. They are all so passionate about the work they are doing at NASA and that was invaluable to witness.”