.........YEAR 2007.........

January 19-26, 2007 Journey Through the Universe is a national educational initiative developed by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. The program takes entire communities , students, teachers, and families to the frontier. Scientists and staff from CSO participated in this program. Electronics engineer Riley Ceria made presentations on Robotics at Waiakea Intermediate School, at Hilo Intermediate School, and at the Connections Charter School. Astronomer Hiroko Shinnaga made presentations to two different groups at the Laupahoehoe School. She talked about how telescopes work, using her demonstration of dropping ping-pong balls on a parabolic microwave dish (see photo). Walter Steiger also made presentations to two different groups at Laupahoehoe School, speaking about the importance of observing everyday nature such as the sky, clouds, rainbows, halos, etc., and thinking about how they come about.

         The children await their turn to "drop the ball"!

April 21, 2007:   AstroDay 2007
AstroDay was again held at the Prince Kuhio Mall from 10 am to 5 pm. CSO's exhibit was organized by Hiroko Shinnaga with the assistance of Diana Bisel, Riley Ceria, Ruisheng Peng, Ed Bufil, and Richard Chamberlin. The exhibit included the CSO model, the parabolic dish demo (see above), a robotic vehicle demo, and the "create-your-own-stars" art project for kids, which was such a great hit last year also. The robotic vehicle was designed and built by CSO engineer Riley Ceria and illustrates the work he has been doing with high school students to stimulate their interest in science via robotics.

June - August 2007. The Summer Intern Student this summer was a graduate student from the University of Orsay (Paris), John Carter. John is a graduate student in astrophysics. It was his desire to work at CSO to gain experience in submillimeter astrophysics. At CSO he assisted Dr. Chamberlin with the analysis of submillimeter data taken at the south pole. Read more... Upon his departure the staff had a small farewell party at which he was presented with a framed picture of CSO.

Pictured, left to tright: Hiroshige Yoshida, Pat Nelson, John Carter,
Riley Ceria, Hiroko Shinnaga, and Richard Chamberlin.