My first research project was the BOREALIS (Balloon Outreach, Research, Exploration, and Landscape Imaging System) ballooning project.  Along with the physics department head, several professors, grad students, and many undergraduates, we would provide the delivery system for payloads from over fifteen schools.  The emphasis of the project was to develop the scientific skills of the undergraduates to pursue research in more challenging fields.  In support of this, the undergraduates would participate in all aspects of the flight, womb-to-tomb, including payload selection, launch configuration, launching, retrieval, and data analysis and distribution.

Additionally, as a tangential project, a group of six undergraduates volunteered to participate in the GURU (Gravitational Undergraduate Research Unit) project with the goal of designing, womb-to-tomb, a mission to calculate the gravitational pull of Earth while onboard the balloon.  I very actively was involved with all phases of the mission, from instrument design, selection, and testing to presentations to managers.