It was a beautiful sunny day on July 15, when 45 high school students gathered on Jessup field to launch a weather balloon that would collect atmospheric data as it flew through the sky.
Sarah Dean, assistant professor of computer science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, organized the launch as part of a week-long outreach program run by the Office of Inclusive Excellence at Cornell Engineering. The program gives high school students interested in STEM careers an in-depth learning experience in a college environment and exposure to the wide breadth of engineering fields available. Students traveled from all over to attend, with about 20% coming from New York state.
“There's no engineering classes at my school, but I really like math and science,” said Sarah O’Donnell, a rising high school junior from Scranton, Pennsylvania. “That's why I personally like this program, because you get to see the different engineering fields, and I feel like that will maybe help me discern more about what I want to do.”
The weather for the launch was perfect – maybe too perfect – with clear skies and temperatures rising to almost 90 degrees in the open field. Students stood underneath umbrellas to stay out of the sun.
WindBorne Systems, a start up based in Palo Alto focused on building a planetary constellation of their Global Sounding Balloons, donated two of their balloons to the program. The company launches hundreds of their long-lasting weather balloons each week and uses the collected atmospheric data to generate accurate weather forecasts through AI-based prediction models. The balloons also leverage advanced AI models to analyze conditions and make navigation decisions based on the results.
For the hands-on portion of the program, Dean chose to teach about the control and navigation of weather balloons because it exposed students to core AI concepts, like planning, decision making and feedback. Then they applied these concepts to optimize balloon navigation algorithms designed to get the balloon to the desired destination.
“We can only directly control the vertical position of the balloon, so we rely on winds to navigate,” Dean said. “It's one thing to plan a path from point A to point B using wind predictions, but it's another thing to actually fly the balloon in the real world.”
For the rest of the week, students ran simulations using previously collected weather balloon data. They also worked on independent group research projects, and were tasked with finding a way to collect as much data as possible – such as by improving the algorithm that controls the balloon or simulating how more durable balloon materials could result in longer flights.
“Doing actual research and presenting about it is something not a lot of us get to do,” said Hui Hui Lee, a rising senior from Kedah, Malaysia, who is attending high school in Montezuma, New Mexico. “It's really nice of them to have us do this, even though for most of us it’s really new.”
In addition to the weather balloon project, students heard talks from professors within different fields of engineering and computer science, and had the opportunity to ask questions of undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. They also took professional headshots and received feedback on their resumés and personal statements for college.
On the day of the launch, after much tinkering – a few connection issues and a lost hose clamp – the balloon and its payload of sensors was finally ready for launch. The group filled the first balloon with helium and released it into a cloudless blue sky, where the shining balloon became smaller and smaller and eventually winked out of sight.
“It’s cool to see things come to life,” Lee said.
They launched the second balloon soon after.
Where are the balloons now?
The first one encountered a ballast issue and ended its flight near the coast of Nova Scotia. The second is still collecting data from the atmosphere, cycling between 1,000 and 30,000 feet, and is currently in the middle of the Atlantic.
Patricia Waldron is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.