Hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students compete for 75 to 100 positions a year for summer or year-long internships, according to Creighton. Students trek across the country to engage in research on water quality, cyber studies, satellites, radar and human performance, among other scientific inquiries at the post-graduate school’s campus on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“It’s a great pipeline of talent coming into the region to work on research,” Creighton said.
Thousands of students have participated since the program began in 1986, he said.
Creighton estimated “roughly three-quarters” of the contract covers the cost to pay research assistants. The rest funds administrative expenses to manage the program, he said.
AFIT has used SOCHE and the American Society for Engineering Education to recruit research assistants for two decades, according to the Air Force.
SOCHE is a collaborative education initiative among colleges and universities representing 155,000 students in southwest Ohio. It began as the Dayton-Miami Valley Consortium in 1967.
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