REU Site: Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics in the LIGO Project

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site at the California Institute of Technology. The site is associated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project at Caltech. LIGO provides a unique and exciting opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in the opening of an entirely new observational window on the Universe. REU participants work closely with individual LIGO scientists on summer research projects involving many aspects of detector hardware development, data analysis, and source modeling. The RET component of this proposal involves high school teachers that are local to the LIGO sites in rural Washington and Louisiana. RET participants take part in research projects alongside the REU students at the sites, and they also work on creating classroom activities that bring the foundations of LIGO science to their own students. Students and teachers work with professional scientists from around the globe, at all stages in their careers, and learn first-hand how large projects are organized and operate. They also acquire new skills that are applicable in a broad range of technical careers, as they work on projects involving optics, lasers, electronics, servo controls, mechanical systems, data analysis, and software development, with an ever-present focus on pushing engineering systems to calculated physical noise limits.