WAS PHASE 2
Hello folks!
I have just returned home after a long and extensive week as a Washington Aerospace Scholar [WAS] at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA. This post will act as a self-reflection of how the program went, to update my friends and family, or perhaps provide some insight for future Washington Aerospace Scholars.
Just to give some background, Phase Two of the WAS program is a 6-day residency in Seattle, WA, where a selected group of WAS Phase One participants are chosen to apply their knowledge from Phase One of the program (a 5-month online course) through team activities, challenges, and missions.
Each day was filled with activities, tours, and team building tasks. There were no 'average-days' at WAS, rather, everyday consisted of new and exciting experiences ranging from touring the Boeing company in Seattle, to designing landers with the goal to prevent an uncooked egg from breaking after being dropped off of the Museum of Flight's balcony.
However, there was still some sort of a common structure within each day of the residency. Each day I would wake up, get ready, head down the glass elevators to the lobby of the Double Tree hotel, and grab a bite to eat at the breakfast buffet with my fellow scholars. Following breakfast, we would then disperse into our four teams: grey, red, white, and blue. Each of our teams had the common goal to plan a mission to Mars, yet we each had a unique aspect of the mission we focused on. After these long days, I would return to my hotel room exhausted with my roommate, and we would prepare for the next day.
Why are we separating into multiple teams when we share the common goal to get to Mars?
The WAS program encourages teamwork, but also recognizes that large feats such as a mission to Mars, require collaboration from many separate organizations and professionals. It is very difficult for these separate organizations to meet in a common space, and work together at the same time, so WAS really tries to make the collaboration process realistic by creating a division between the scholars. This separation was achieved by setting up designated working spaces for each team, and only allowing communication between teams to occur through a Point of Contact (POC).
There were two leadership positions that the scholars of each team could interview for; the Point of Contact (POC), and the System Manager.
The System Manager had the duty of managing each team, and presenting updates of team progress during mission briefings (where all teams are present).
I interviewed for the POC position because it was the only position that could communicate with the other teams. The job of the POC was to translate information between the other team POC's. I felt as though this position would allow me to fully experience the WAS program, including maintaining the ability to build relationships with scholars and mentors of separate teams. I was then offered the POC role by my team mentors, and have since then confirmed these previously mentioned beliefs of the role.
Now for the interesting stuff. My favorite part about the residency was when we toured several research laboratories and facilities at the University of Washington. We arrived at UW's Plasma Dynamics Lab, and the little Star Wars loving girl inside of me was so excited to hear all about this magical light saber machine. This machine is an experiment that uses magnetic fields to try and stabilize plasma, so that future applications of plasma may be more efficient, and act as a more effective energy production method.
We toured UW, Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne, the Museum of Flight's restoration center, participated in mock space mission simulations, presented rover designs in front of UW faculty, and heard from many knowledgeable speakers. There were so many great moments and stories this past week, that there are too many to mention right now. Throughout Phase Two of the Washington Aerospace Scholars Program I have met so many other juniors who share a love for space exploration and technology, and thoroughly enjoyed learning about their interests, passions, and plans for the future.
I feel as though I can speak for many of the Washington Aerospace Scholars and say that we have bonded in such a short amount of time, and that we are all excited to see where this WAS experience leads one another in the future.
Thank you to everyone who makes this program possible!
#NoSleepTillMars
I have just returned home after a long and extensive week as a Washington Aerospace Scholar [WAS] at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA. This post will act as a self-reflection of how the program went, to update my friends and family, or perhaps provide some insight for future Washington Aerospace Scholars.
Just to give some background, Phase Two of the WAS program is a 6-day residency in Seattle, WA, where a selected group of WAS Phase One participants are chosen to apply their knowledge from Phase One of the program (a 5-month online course) through team activities, challenges, and missions.
Each day was filled with activities, tours, and team building tasks. There were no 'average-days' at WAS, rather, everyday consisted of new and exciting experiences ranging from touring the Boeing company in Seattle, to designing landers with the goal to prevent an uncooked egg from breaking after being dropped off of the Museum of Flight's balcony.
However, there was still some sort of a common structure within each day of the residency. Each day I would wake up, get ready, head down the glass elevators to the lobby of the Double Tree hotel, and grab a bite to eat at the breakfast buffet with my fellow scholars. Following breakfast, we would then disperse into our four teams: grey, red, white, and blue. Each of our teams had the common goal to plan a mission to Mars, yet we each had a unique aspect of the mission we focused on. After these long days, I would return to my hotel room exhausted with my roommate, and we would prepare for the next day.
Why are we separating into multiple teams when we share the common goal to get to Mars?
The WAS program encourages teamwork, but also recognizes that large feats such as a mission to Mars, require collaboration from many separate organizations and professionals. It is very difficult for these separate organizations to meet in a common space, and work together at the same time, so WAS really tries to make the collaboration process realistic by creating a division between the scholars. This separation was achieved by setting up designated working spaces for each team, and only allowing communication between teams to occur through a Point of Contact (POC).
There were two leadership positions that the scholars of each team could interview for; the Point of Contact (POC), and the System Manager.
The System Manager had the duty of managing each team, and presenting updates of team progress during mission briefings (where all teams are present).
I interviewed for the POC position because it was the only position that could communicate with the other teams. The job of the POC was to translate information between the other team POC's. I felt as though this position would allow me to fully experience the WAS program, including maintaining the ability to build relationships with scholars and mentors of separate teams. I was then offered the POC role by my team mentors, and have since then confirmed these previously mentioned beliefs of the role.
Now for the interesting stuff. My favorite part about the residency was when we toured several research laboratories and facilities at the University of Washington. We arrived at UW's Plasma Dynamics Lab, and the little Star Wars loving girl inside of me was so excited to hear all about this magical light saber machine. This machine is an experiment that uses magnetic fields to try and stabilize plasma, so that future applications of plasma may be more efficient, and act as a more effective energy production method.
We toured UW, Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne, the Museum of Flight's restoration center, participated in mock space mission simulations, presented rover designs in front of UW faculty, and heard from many knowledgeable speakers. There were so many great moments and stories this past week, that there are too many to mention right now. Throughout Phase Two of the Washington Aerospace Scholars Program I have met so many other juniors who share a love for space exploration and technology, and thoroughly enjoyed learning about their interests, passions, and plans for the future.
I feel as though I can speak for many of the Washington Aerospace Scholars and say that we have bonded in such a short amount of time, and that we are all excited to see where this WAS experience leads one another in the future.
Thank you to everyone who makes this program possible!
#NoSleepTillMars
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