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HANOVER, N.H. -- ERDC-CRREL’s Human Capital Team (HCT) recently hosted the Student, Post-graduate and Post-doctorate Research Symposium, bringing 14 young researchers and their mentors together to engage employees, family members, teachers and interested others in an effort to provide a broad professional experience.
Welcoming attendees to the symposium, doubling as an ice cream social, was CRREL Research and Engineering Division Chief Dr. Justin Berman. “These young researchers have dedicated their time to work and now share their experiences working in a government lab,” said Berman.
The annual symposium allows students and interns to show and talk about their work. “Poster presentations are a common feature of many scientific meetings,” said Sue Koh, HCT chief. “Preparing a scientific poster is an important aspect of communicating research results to a broader audience and enhances the student/post-graduate experience.
"We provide summer employees two real-world opportunities – to host an internal seminar, gaining experience in giving an oral presentation, or to provide a poster at the symposium,” said Lourie Herrin, human capital program specialist. “It really depends on their schedule; some students have already returned to school, but we do have a few students that take the opportunity to do both to gain these experiences.”
Returning student Monica Preston hosted both a seminar and a symposium poster. A Worcester Polytechnic Institute sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, Preston has worked three summers at CRREL, this summer researching and working on robotics.
“The seminar was a lot of fun and it took a lot of work, but I got to do a segment about what I thought of robotics in the future,” said Preston. “I really enjoyed this because I was able to be creative.”
Preston is already busy paying forward by helping the first-year students with their posters. During the poster presentation she and mentor Dr. Jim Lever, a CRREL mechanical engineer, were on hand to share the world of robotics research with attendees.
“This is fun! I got the chance to help out the new students this year with their posters, and today I get a chance to talk about my research and experiences,” said Preston.
During previous summers, Preston worked with Researchers Rosa Affleck, Maggie Knuth, and Dr. Sally Shoop. This summer, she says the robotics work really “clicked” for her. Most of her time was spent working on the Cool Robot, one of two robots that CRREL maintains with Dartmouth College.
Preston worked on the Cool Robot GPS (Global Positioning System), integrating it with the ground penetrating radar unit and then into the load data to equipment headed for the very harsh environments of the South Pole and Greenland.
“After college I want a chance to be creative and to start new things, an opportunity to use what I have learned and my experience to make things easier and safer,” said Preston.
Kimball Union Academy (KUA) Science Educator Terry Donoghue also attended the symposium. The academy is moving more and more to an experiential learning model and students, particularly in their junior and senior years, are looking for guidance and mentoring in various endeavors.
“I initiated contact last summer in an effort to tap into CRREL’s STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] efforts,” said Donoghue, who brought teachers from Plainfield (N.H.) School District to the symposium. “We like all of CRREL’s student initiatives. I have five to six classes that could possibly fit CRREL topics into the curriculum.”
Richmond Middle School Science Teacher Cliff Harriman was also in attendance with former student and second summer CRREL Intern Owen Brennick. Brennick’s poster was titled “To Melt or Not to Melt,” an information-filled poster on the topic of climate change and the effect on Arctic sea ice.
“We’ll have this student-generated data for use in the classroom,” said Harriman, pointing to Brennick’s poster. “It is unheard of!”
“Working at CRREL has been fun and enjoyable,” said Brennick. “I asked for hands-on work and I have been working in the coldrooms with ice cores, making thin sections of the ice and checking salinity, measuring density and taking photos of the ice. Working with CRREL researchers is informative and it is nice to work with great people and on real world projects—where it matters.”
Going into his sophomore year at Hanover High School, Brennick already knows what he wants and does not want to do. “I don’t want to be sitting in front of a computer all day at work. Maybe something hands on like robotics in an interesting work place,” said Brennick.
The symposium was well attended and organizers were pleased with the interest of the schools in attendance. “It was nice to see the students’ parents and other local school students in attendance and asking questions,” Herrin said.