IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2021 - 114

training of faculty experienced in different areas who would
like to engage in remote sensing research and education. It
supports swift research results at both institutions. The collaborative
remote sensing research engages and empowers
the students involved in the research projects and allows
them to deepen their understanding of the field. Projects
include tracking local near-ground air pollution, studying
cloud and boundary layer heights, tracking the long-range
transport of Asian and Saharan dust, instrument intercomparisons,
and instrument-development research.
To further encourage sustained research in groups of undergraduates,
peer mentoring within the group is employed
to maximize group productivity, minimize the learning
curve for new students joining the group, and provide continuity
when undergraduates graduate and leave the group.
Students are often recruited into the group in their freshman
or sophomore year of college and are encouraged to stay with
the group throughout their undergraduate career. More senior
members of the group help train the incoming group
members. Each member working on a project is required to
document his or her work and create manuals for and train
upcoming students, who will then be able to take over their
work and build upon it rather than beginning anew.
Undergraduate students at CCSU and UB involved in the
project have coauthored papers presented at regional meetings,
five of which have been awarded " Best Student Presentation "
at meetings of the New England Section of the American
Physical Society. Students have also coauthored papers
presented at well-respected peer-reviewed meetings, including
the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics-Europe,
the European Space Agency's Living Planet Symposium, the
International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) AsiaPacific
Remote Sensing conference, the International Geoscience
and Remote Sensing Symposium 2018 (IGARSS2018),
SPIE Defense + Security: Laser Radar Technology and Applications
XXIII, SPIE Lidar Remote Sensing For Environmental
Monitoring, and many more. Students have presented their
work in internal research symposiums and have frequently
traveled to meetings to present their work.
Undergraduate students from these research groups gain
FIGURE 4. Amin Kabir (right) and UB research students setting up
the laser in a sports field at UB, Nassau, Bahamas.
FIGURE 5. A CCSU detector image with a vertical laser beam.
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significant knowledge on atmospheric science and the fundamental
principles of laser and optics and acquire handson
skills in remote sensing and experimental optical techniques.
Students graduating from these research groups
have a strong foundation in remote sensing and have been
recruited by graduate schools. They are inspired and empowered.
Students often speak of the impact that research
in this project has had on their education and lives. Student
Chaneaka Bain at UB describes how the project ignited her
desire to study climatology:
Working as an undergraduate research student under
the guidance of Dr. Kabir has afforded me the opportunity
of applying complex textbook equations
to real-life applications and gaining hands-on experience
in proper research methodology. My participation
has enabled me to acquire expansive knowledge
on light dispersion, optical science, laser technology,
and aerosol levels in the atmosphere regionally
and globally and to analyze the correlation between
thereof. I have been able to work with specialized
software and equipment used to extrapolate climatology
data. Additionally, my organizational skills have
improved drastically as data analysis, data extraction,
and then data compilation were imperative steps
during research conducted using CLidar technology.
Ultimately, the skills I have acquired have been foundational
in establishing the want to further explore
research in climatology on a greater depth.
Student Seth Gagnon at CCSU described project participation
as the most important thing in his college education:
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE JUNE 2021
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2021

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