MIT Summer Research Program Students Visit the USGS Woods Hole Science Center

By Claudia Flores September 2008

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Above: Students wear 3-D glasses to view a GeoWall projection of the sea floor around Puerto Rico, while Claudia Flores explains the tectonics of the Caribbean region. Photograph by Chris Polloni. [larger version]

On July 12, 2008, a small group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Summer Research Program (MSRP) visited the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to get a virtual tour with the GeoWall, a stereo-projection system used to illustrate spatial data sets in 3-D. Claudia Flores showed the students photographs and short movies in a brief presentation on research methods used at sea around Puerto Rico by the USGS. She used the GeoWall to help them visualize the research being done in the Caribbean and how all the research methods work together. The presentation concluded with a projection of the Dead Sea region, demonstrating the GeoWall's versatility for illustrating a wide range of spatial data. The students asked many perceptive questions and seemed eager to learn more.

The group that visited the USGS was part of a larger group of MSRP students who came for a 1-day tour of the research institutions in Woods Hole: the Marine Biological Laboratory, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Marine Fisheries Service, the Sea Education Association, the USGS, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Woods Hole Research Center. The students toured the facilities of the institutions and received a presentation at the end of their tour explaining the various research programs available in Woods Hole. The MSRP program provides opportunities to talented undergraduate students from underprivileged backgrounds to do summer research at MIT in either science or engineering.

USGS participants were Claudia Flores and Chris Polloni. The visit and tour were organized by Julia Westwater of the WHOI Academic Programs Office and Regina Campbell-Malone, a WHOI postdoctoral investigator.

Information about the MIT Summer Research Program is posted at URL http://web.mit.edu/gso/admissions/summer.html, and information about the Woods Hole Diversity Advisory Committee at URL http://www.woodsholediversity.org/.

MIT Summer Research Program Students Tour USGS Woods Hole Science Center September 2007

MIT Summer Research Program Students Visit USGS in Woods Hole September 2006

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA

Woods Hole Science Center U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Woods Hole, MA

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September 2008

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in this issue:

cover story:
Sea Otter Population Recovery Continues at Slower Rate

Scientists Map Arctic Sea Floor

Tribal Canoes Gather Water-Quality Data

Raising Awareness of Water-Resource Issues

Sea Otter Awareness Week

MIT Students Visit USGS

Diversity in the USGS Workforce

Kvenvolden Honored at International Conference

Community-Use "Recyclabikes"

USGS Woods Hole Welcomes Hapke

Coral Reefs of the USA

September 2008 Publications List