Since 2005, the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin has offered a program called the Freshmen Research Initiative (FRI), aimed at bolstering the graduation rates of its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students.  The FRI currently places approximately 750 freshmen in 26 faculty-led research groups each year.  These research groups are called ``Research Streams", and they typically include postdoctoral fellows called ``Research Educators".  The faculty PIs and Research Educators work together to develop innovative teaching and research methods which make it possible for freshmen to participate in their group's research, with the goal of producing publishable results from student work.

Along with PI Paul Shapiro, and colleague Mia Bovill, I developed a new FRI Research Stream called Cosmic Dawn, and I served as its Research Educator for 3 years.  Our stream used cosmological N-body simulations to study the formation and statistical properties of dark matter halos over the first billion years of cosmic time.  With Shapiro and Bovill, I have supervised 59 freshmen and sophomore students in research projects (see images below).    

Spring 2012 Cosmic Dawn students (our inaugural class).     

Spring 2013 Cosmic Dawn students.