Collaboration to Integrate Research and Education between University of Texas, Brownsville and LIGO

德克萨斯大学布朗斯维尔分校与 LIGO 合作整合研究和教育

• 批准号: 9981795
• 负责人: Joseph Romano
• 金额: $ 78.52万
• 依托单位: The University of Texas at Brownsville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-09-15 至 2003-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9981795&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaboration; Integrate; Research; Education; between

A long-term collaboration to integrate research and education will beformed between the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) and theLaser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Thiscollaboration will incorporate four faculty members and approximatelyten students from UTB, and staff scientists and engineers from LIGOlaboratory. Research activities will focus on three main areasrelated to gravitational wave data analysis: (i) software developmentfor detector characterization, (ii) software development forgravitational wave detection, and (iii) construction of a distributedprocessing environment to analyze gravitational wave data. Studentsfrom UTB will spend approximately ten weeks each summer at the LIGOobservatory in Livingston, LA where they will install and testsoftware developed at UTB. Enhancements to education will consist oftwo new graduate-level courses and four new undergraduatecourses/modules, which will integrate the research activities into thecurriculum.The activities listed above are important for a variety of reasons.The LIGO interferometers will soon be joined by similar gravitationalwave interferometers and several resonant bar detectors located in theUS, Europe, Japan, and Australia. This world-wide network ofgravitational wave detectors will open a new window onto the universe,allowing physicists to understand better the nature of stronggravitational fields and astronomers to "see" objects and catastrophicastrophysical events that cannot be studied by more traditionalelectromagnetic-based astronomy. The commissioning of the LIGOinterferometers is scheduled for the year 2000, and a two yearscience-data run is planned for the end of 2002. Thus, it is essentialfor the success of LIGO and the world-wide network of detectors thatsoftware for analyzing the performance of gravitational wave detectorsand for searching for astrophysical sources must be developed andtested within the next two or three years. The addition of new coursesat UTB and the opportunity for students to spend time at the LIGOobservatory should attract more students into science and engineering,and consequently increase the number of minority students graduating withscience-related degrees.

德克萨斯大学布朗斯维尔分校(UTB)和激光干涉仪引力波天文台(LIGO)将长期合作，整合研究和教育。这项合作将包括来自UTB的四名教员和大约十名学生，以及LIGO实验室的工作人员科学家和工程师。研究活动将侧重于与引力波数据分析有关的三个主要领域：(1)探测器特性软件开发；(2)引力波探测软件开发；(3)建立分析引力波数据的分布式处理环境。来自UTB的学生每年夏天将在洛杉矶利文斯顿的LIGO天文台呆上大约10周，在那里他们将安装和测试在UTB开发的软件。加强教育将包括两门新的研究生水平的课程和四门新的本科生课程/模块，这将把研究活动整合到课程中。上面列出的活动出于各种原因而很重要。LIGO干涉仪很快将加入类似的引力波干涉仪和位于美国、欧洲、日本和澳大利亚的几个共振棒探测器。这一覆盖全球的引力波探测器网络将打开一扇了解宇宙的新窗口，使物理学家能够更好地了解强引力场的性质，使天文学家能够“看到”更传统的基于电磁的天文学无法研究的物体和灾难性天体物理事件。LIGO干涉仪计划于2000年投入使用，并计划在2002年底进行为期两年的科学数据收集。因此，对于LIGO和全球探测器网络的成功来说，必须在未来两三年内开发和测试用于分析引力波探测器性能和搜索天体物理源的软件。UTB增加了新的课程，学生有机会在LIGO天文台度过时间，这应该会吸引更多的学生进入科学和工程专业，从而增加获得科学相关学位的少数族裔学生的数量。