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The NASA Academy is an intensive summer project for highly motivated and successful undergraduate and graduate students. During the summer of 2006, three NASA Centers hosted an Academy, including the Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. The Academy's purpose is to bring together the likely future leaders in space activity so that they learn at an early stage how NASA functions and become acquainted with each other personally and professionally. With the support of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project and a few commercial sponsors, over 500 students have graduated from NASA Academy projects at Glenn, Goddard, Ames, Marshall, and Dryden Centers. Each year, the Academy selects high-achieving students in a variety of academic disciplines from U.S. and international universities.
Students are invited to participate based on the following selection criteria.
-- Demonstrated interest in space.
-- Demonstrated research or project experience.
-- High academic standing, at least a 3.0/4.0 GPA.
-- Demonstrated leadership ability.
-- Demonstrated maturity as a student and individual.
The 10-week, NASA Academy curriculum combines a valuable research experience with a residential, leadership development project. Academy participants, known as Research Associates, or RAs, spend three or four days per week working full-time on an individual research project with a NASA scientist or engineer, called their Principal Investigator, or PI. These projects offer a challenging learning experience in which the RAs do hands-on research side by side with their mentors. Projects range from designing orbital trajectories, to building robotic tools for astronauts, to working with carbon nanotubes, to improving X-ray detection techniques for space telescopes. These cutting-edge topics teach the RAs about the latest in NASA research and development. In a poster session at mid-term, the RAs demonstrate the progress of their research. The Academy session concludes with final oral presentations and a graduation ceremony. The RAs work three or four days per week because of the numerous other activities in the Academy curriculum.
A group project to which the entire Academy contributes complements the individual research project. As a group, the students choose the topic, scope and deliverables based on proposals submitted by researchers at the NASA center. A scientist or engineer serves as the mentor, but the students determine leadership roles and responsibilities within the project. Thus, the group project serves as a team-building exercise, as well as an academic study. Most of the work is done in the RAs' free time at the house where they all live. The group projects are opportunities for RAs of different academic backgrounds to contribute in unique ways.
The individual and group projects are enough to give the RAs a "full-time" load. The curriculum is complemented, however, by many other activities designed to teach the RAs about the intricacies of the space program. Participants make field trips to several NASA centers, academic institutions and commercial aerospace companies. Goddard students visit such institutions as the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Orbital Sciences Corporation and the University of Maryland Space Systems Lab. The Academy also includes interaction with space experts and leaders, and a broad lecture curriculum covering topics related to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, research, space technology, space commercialization, safety, space policies and international issues. Finally, there are several opportunities for educational outreach in which the RAs mentor younger students. While taking part in these activities, the RAs are also required to take care of several other responsibilities, such as writing thank-you notes for speakers, designing a team logo, inviting speakers and preparing introductions for them, and building a model rocket to launch in front of the Center Director. The busy schedule teaches the RAs professionalism, time management and resourcefulness.
After the summer session, RAs are inducted into the NASA Academy Alumni Association, or NAAA. The NAAA is a registered 501(3C) organization that supports the missions of NASA and the Academy, provides a network for communication and support for alumni, and competitively awards travel grants to students to present technical papers at conferences. After 14 years, among its alumni are over 50 members with doctorates, 45 employees of NASA centers, 65 NASA contractors, 70 other professionals in aerospace-related fields, 10 math, science and physics teachers, and three CEOs, with approximately 50% of the alumni currently having completed or completing advanced degrees. In addition, Academy alumni account for hundreds of scholarship awards, space agency awards, national awards, professional society awards, and university awards, including five NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-Doctoral Fellows during the past five years -- with at least one in every cohort. Academy alumni are also responsible for hundreds of presentations, projects, publications and patents.
Who to Contact at NASA
David Rosage
Goddard Space Flight Center
Phone: (301) 286-0904
E-mail:
david.j.rosage@nasa.gov
NASA Academy
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