REU Site: Gravitational-Wave Science in the LIGO Project

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the renewal of the existing Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site program associated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project at California Institute of Technology. The project will support fifteen undergraduate students for ten weeks of summer research each summer for three years. LIGO provides a unique and exciting opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in the opening of an entirely new observational window on the Universe using and developing detectors with unprecedented precision. REU participants work closely with individual LIGO scientists on projects involving many aspects of detector technology, data analysis, and source modeling. Every student develops skills in scientific writing and communication, through preparation of a project proposal prior to the summer, progress reports, and a professional-quality presentation and report at the end of the summer. The LIGO REU program provides undergraduate students with a rewarding research experience at the frontiers of precision metrology, strong-field gravity, and observational astrophysics in which they make real and lasting contributions to a major scientific effort. Students work with and are mentored by professional scientists from LIGO Laboratory, Caltech theoretical astrophysics, and the global LIGO Scientific Collaboration and learn first-hand how large projects are organized and operate. They acquire new skills that are applicable in a broad range of technical careers, involving optics, lasers, electronics, servo controls, mechanical systems, data analysis, numerical relativity, astrophysical source modeling, software development, high throughput computing, and related technologies. They benefit from a well-established laboratory infrastructure, the availability of high-throughput computing, document control, safety and security procedures, and administrative support. The program further places special emphasis on providing these experiences to women, underrepresented minorities, and students from institutions with limited research opportunities, in order to increase diversity in the physical sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.