ResearchThe Fort Lewis Physics & Engineering Department participates in the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, sponsored by NASA. Through this grant program, our students frequently acquire paid internships for summer research in a variety of physics, astronomy, and engineering capacities. We have connections for recurring internships with the NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) facility in Pasadena, Calif., and with Textron Corp. (a high-tech aerospace and defense business) near Boston, Mass, as well as other internship opportunities with the Space Grant headquarters at the University of Colorado in Boulder. We also offer frequent internships working at our observatory facility during the summer nights, and others building instrumentation payloads and robotic systems for sensor experiments on high altitude balloon-borne experiments at the edge of our atmosphere. FLC physics and engineering students are also encouraged to compete for the Elaine Hansen summer internship program with NASA, and to participate in NASA small-payload rocketry workshops. Physics 380/381The observatory is used by FLC students majoring in Physics or Engineering-Physics as an optional lab during Phys 380 or 381, the physics advanced laboratory class required of all physics majors. A variety of projects, mostly of their chosing, have been undertaken. Some of the experiments include:
Observational Senior Research projectsSome students also chose an observational astronomy topic for their Senior research. These students typically work at the observatory during the summer, (and occationally during the school year) and have been instrumental in keeping things working. These projects have included:
Other ProjectsOther related projects include engineering design projects, and theoretical astrophysics. Some of which were supported by the NASA Space Grant:
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Observatory
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