SERENADES Overview
Under
the NASAÂ’s Minority University and College Education and Research
Partnership
Initiative (MUCERPI), California State University (CSULA), Pasadena City
College (PCC),
and University of Southern California (USC) have established partnerships
and
exchange/joint programs in space science-related education and research.
The
SERENADES Laboratory endeavors to continue the preparation of students
through the educational pipeline established based on the MUCERPI program. Through the
partnership of
this program, four PCC students have been prepared, transferred to CSULA,
and now
work in the SERENADES Laboratory. More than twenty students have benefited
from the
interdisciplinary training classes, and workshops offered by the SERENADES
Laboratory.
Among the nine SERENADES graduates, all of them have been either hired by
JPL, local
aerospace industry, or admitted to the graduate schools. With the
collaborative efforts of the
Co-PIs, student assistants, and in-service teachers participated in the
SERENADES research
activities, more than 10 papers have been published, and more than 30
presentations have
been given in technical conferences, and outreach / open house events. Two
participating in-service
teachers are delivering their research outcomes and the instructional
software tools to
the curricula of astronomy and physics in the local school districts. The
SERENADES
Laboratory is sponsoring the NCLR Escalera Project which allows
Hispanic students
from Garfield High School to participate in SERENADES researches in summer. In
addition, one newly proposed course is under development to leverage the
research result of
real-time system from the SERENADES laboratory to the undergraduate
curriculum.