How high school students are already making a difference toward the detection of gravitational waves.

[Valeria Ventura Subirachs]

Your Name: Valeria Ventura Subirachs

Grade Level: 9th

School or Organization Name: Freeport High School/ Pulsar search collaboratory

Co-Presenter Name(s): none

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Freeport, NY

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): STEM enthusiasts, Amateur astronomers, Students, Teachers

Short Session Description (one line): Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly, beaming out regular pulses of radio waves. members of the Pulsar Search Collaboratory are in charge of analyzing the 30 terabytes of data collected by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in the look out for these exotic objects.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):

The Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) is a joint project, between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and West Virginia University (WVU), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the PSC  is to give high school students experience doing  real research.  With this experience they gain the confidence they need to succeed in STEM majors in college. The fundamental goal of this project is to detect enough millisecond pulsars to create an array which ultimately will aid us in detecting gravitational waves in a more accessible and inexpensive way as LIGO has done before; this can be done because of the astonishing properties of the pulsar to act as the most precise atomic clocks.

This session will give an introduction to neutron stars, the different types of plots we analyze and what we can derive from these measurements. We will also briefly touch upon fast radio bursts and pulsar timing arrays.I'll share my personal experience as a member of the PSC and the challenges I've had to face.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:

• http://pulsarsearchcollaboratory.com/
• http://nanograv.org/
• http://pulsarsearchcollaboratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/PSC...

[rebin sadik]

Dear Valeria,

If there is no conflict in time, I am sure to attend this session.

Your topic interests me, although I am totally new to the topic.

All the very best to you.

Regards

Rebin

[Valeria Ventura Subirachs]

Thank you so much Rebin,
have you submitted your proposal as well?
Also I'm not sure how they are going to manage the conference schedule but hopefully the different time zones won't be an impediment.
-Valeria

[Sebastian Panakal]

May we plant a tree in your honor, Valeria?