The Story

The Balloon Project was an educational journey that took me through my junior and senior years in college. In total there were almost 36 units of independent study, research, and internships associated with the project. The project was featured in New Scientist, it won two statewide research competitions, and to this day administrators at my university swear to me “no student will ever be allowed to do what you did Kosta.” Not because they were unhappy with the outcome, but because the project bent or broke every rule in the traditional academicians handbook.

I wrote for over $14,000 worth of research grants with the endorsement of faculty advisers, but the advisers, for the most part, stayed out of the project. Instead of working in a laboratory setting, or under the guidance of a single faculty member I was required to seek out my own tools and facilities to make this project happen. This ended up being a wonderful way to work as I was not limited to one faculty member for my guidance. I was able to seek the opinion and guidance (as it was needed) from almost all departments– chemistry, computer science, physics, English, environmental science, and even art. I abused professors office hours and in turn built personal relationships with the faculty members who offered their insight and guidance. This decentralized and interdisciplinary methodology allowed me, the student, to have a breadth of educational experiences that I think are unparalleled at any other university.

Internships with the manufacturing industry were necessary to CNC machine parts as my school did not have any engineering facilities (or even an engineering major) to speak of. A drive of over 50 miles was required to get to the premises of World Class Manufacturing where I spent my evenings producing the parts that were designed to my own specifications. My interactions with the private sector were quite broad– there were even talks of the the air sampling system being purchased by an environmental research company.

Various government agencies were involved with the project including the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Services. Many e-mails, permits, waivers, and phone conversations with officials were required to allow this project to get off the ground.

My dorm room was converted into a laboratory and my roommates were enlisted as lab partners. It wasn’t uncommon to see strange things going on at all hours of day and night in my building as we were collectively known as “the troublemakers.” Thousands of feet of wire and balloon tether were spooled and de-spooled from winches, it often found its way wrapped around the halls as we desperately tried to untangle knots. A vacuum pump in our living room was used not only as a coffee table “conversation piece” but to evacuate sample chambers. Test equipment littered my bedroom as I worked day and night to complete the project. Stacked boxes of pneumatic and mechanical paraphernalia, breadboards littered with components, servers running in closets– I tried my best to make the best of the space available but the kitchen table usually fell victim.

The Balloon Project was a lifestyle, not just a project. It allowed me to experience science from not only a research perspective but from a political, managerial, philosophical, and artistic perspective. To me the project was more than just an exercise in research. It was my educational treatise– an idea fostered by an ideology of, “Learning by doing.”

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