Brett Deaton - I hope to have earned my bachelor's degree in Physics by this coming spring (2006) where I am currently enrolled at Abilene Christian University in Texas. My career interests include teaching science or mathematics, and also--largely because of my experience this summer--research and perhaps software development in radio astronomy. During my studentship at ASTRON, my supervisors were Heino Falcke and his Ph.D student, Lars Bahren. The project they assigned to me was to develop a specific software module for LOPES-Tools, a software package being built for analysis of data from the LOFAR-ITS and LOPES arrays. The foundation of the module is a gain curve extraction routine to determine the underlying curve of a spectrum. This curve is then used to calibrate antenna gain, and can also be employed in RFI flagging. In my free time, I enjoy being in the outdoors, and hence, had a great time exploring the Dwingelderveld national park during my stay in Dwingeloo. I also enjoy reading (and got through several good books this summer), running (during which I got lost quite a few times, only to be pointed in the right direction by locals), rock climbing (which for obvious reasons doesn't exist in the Drenthe province--but I did get to visit a gym in Amsterdam), and football (which we played almost weekly throughout the summer). During my work at ASTRON, I got to know quite a few of the astronomers in more social settings than work, such as movie outings, card nights, dinner, and even traveling together to the beach or to nearby cities. I am really quite pleased about my summer studentship experience not only because it was challenging and got me newly excited about radio astronomy, but also because of the contacts I've made with quite a few interesting people in the field. I can tell that the program is structured so that even a newcomer to astronomy like myself can find what he or she needs to get started.

Juan Carlos Algaba - I come from Valencia (Spain). I have previously worked on S5 Polar Cap Sample and AB Doradus system in my first year PhD thesis there. As a summer student in JIVE I have been working on VLBI studies of the fast scintillating quasar PKS1257-326 which, unlike other fast scintillating quasars, has significant extended structure. The goal is to compare the VLBA data with ATCA data in order to probe the magnetic field and evolution of the inner radiojet. My supervisors here are Dr. Hayley Bignall and Dr. Cormac Reynolds. I am enjoying my work here, the invaluable aid of my supervisors and the marvellous relationship I have with them, the remainder of the summer students and many of JIVE and ASTRON staff.

Daniele Biancu - I am Daniele Biancu a computer scientist that graduated at the University of Milano, Computer Science Department on July 2002. At present, I am a researcher at the Ira-Cnr (Institute of Radio Astronomy, National Research Council) in Bologna, Italy. I joined the institute on September 2003. Since then, I have been working on various activities related to the development and testing of algorithms to improve calculus and performance of astronomical data processing. As summer student at JIVE, I have worked with Huib Jan van Langevelde on projects related to the Motion of the parallax of HO maser star. I have also implemented a Python pipeline code for standard AIPS. I think that to work at JIVE has been an exciting challenge! I had a great time during these ten weeks and I cannot forget the question: "Who is coming for ....?"

Birgitta Burggraf - My name is Birgitta Burggraf and I am from Germany. I have finished my diploma in physics at the Ruhr-University Bochum a few month ago. This year I was one of the ASTRON summer students. My supervisor was Corina Vogt. My project during the summer was to reduce WSRT data using AIPS++. Therefore I wrote codes to automatise the reduction of this data. The scientific aim was to measure the Faraday rotation of about 200 sources behind the Perseus cluster region in order to determine the magnetic field structure of the cluster. Aside from learning how to deal with radio data there were a lot of other activities organised for us summer students. We learned how to play Bridge, did a 'wadloping', went to the beach and had some great parties.

Franz Kenn - Shortly after I began writing my PhD thesis at the Radio-astronomical Institute of the University of Bonn in Germany, Uli Klein - who is my supervisor there - allowed me to apply for this summer studentship and fortunately I was accepted. He told me that I would gather a lot of knowledge there while working together with some of the best radio-astronomers in Europe. In spite of these high-pitched expectations I was not disappointed: Together with Raffaella Morganti and Tom Oosterloo I reduced HI data of a couple of early-type elliptical galaxies. On the basis of these observations it is now possible to compare their large-scale dynamics with information from Leiden University's SAURON project, which collected data of their behaviour in the very center by conducting optical spectroscopy. While dealing with these galaxies I picked up a lot of new ideas on how to automate certain reduction steps and worked on a data reduction pipeline for observations done with the Westerbork array. I was especially delighted by taking part in some extra-curricular activities like playing soccer or bridge and it was really interesting to learn to know all the friendly people from ASTRON and JIVE, be it at one of their magnificent parties or during our regular visits to the local cinema in Hoogeveen.