AO Adapts: Continued Workshops, Training, and Education

The Strategic Vision for Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) Workshop was funded by the NSF to occur the first week of April in Cornell University. The purpose of this workshop is to define a vision highlighting what the community sees as the most important objectives for the ISR facilities, and to develop a strategy for pursuing them. In lieu of the workshop, a mini-workshop was held with session speakers over video chat to discuss objectives and move the workshop goals forward.

The Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) Summer School is a five-year NSF award to provide students with hands-on experience in designing and running experiments at (ISR) facilities. Since 2008, the ISR Summer School has been run to ensure the continued ISR technical capacity of future scientists. The 2020 ISR Summer School will be conducted virtually for the first time. The school will adopt a "flipped classroom" structure with pre-recorded lectures and live activities. Students will remotely conduct and analyze experiment data.

The STEAM Teaching at Arecibo (STAR) Academy was not interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes and research projects were completed remotely. Rather than host a virtual graduation, the STAR students and their families will be invited for an in-person celebration at the Science and Visitor Center when conditions are safe enough.

Adapting to the global pandemic, the AO REU students participated in a virtual one-week long professional development program this summer and will complete their internship at the observatory next year for 9 weeks (rather than the usual 10 weeks). During the professional development week, the students met AO scientists and engineers, participating in both technical talks and skill development presentations. The week also included discussions on equity, diversity, and inclusion in the science community. The program ended with a pizza party (pizza delivered to each student at their homes)! A few REU alumni attended to share their experiences with the group as well. The AO team looks forward to hosting these talented students on-site next year! The REU program is funded by the National Science Foundation to support active research participation by undergraduate students, and has been hosted at AO since 1987. REU Virtual Professional Development Week

The Arecibo & Green Bank Observatories will co-host a Remote Observer Training Workshop between October 12 - 16, 2020. The Arecibo-specific sessions will be on Oct 15 - 16, 2020. This is a great opportunity for graduate students and astronomers to be trained to remotely use the Arecibo telescope and process the data. If you are interested, you can register at the Single Dish Training web post.