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This academic year, three New Jersey City University students answered NASA’s call to partner with the space agency network to advance space-related strategies.

Gabriel Mendoza and Xyanna Fuentes, both of Jersey City, and Vedi Patel, of Union City, were selected as NASA New Jersey Space Grant Consortium Research Interns for the 2024-2025.

They, along with peers from 4-year schools and some community colleges, showcased innovative research projects April 25 at Rutgers-Camden.

The program fosters the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professionals while connecting students with real-world applications of their studies.

NASA’s national grant program provides each of the student participants $2,000 for their research, which was mentored by Moitrayee Chatterjee, NJCU assistant professor of computer science.

Read the full article on jcitytimes.com

Author Credit: Ron Leir

Image Credit: NJSGC and J City Times

Original Post Date: 5.27.25

And the winner is… the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The Utah Student Robotics Club won the grand prize Artemis Award on May 22 for NASA’s 2025 Lunabotics Challenge held at The Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

“Win was our motto for the whole year,” said Brycen Chaney, University of Utah, president of student robotics. “We had a mission objective to take our team and competition a step further, but win was right up front of our minds.”

Lunabotics is an annual challenge where students design and build an autonomous and remote-controlled robot to navigate the lunar surface in support of the Artemis campaign. The students from the University of Utah used their robot to excavate simulated regolith, the loose, fragmented material on the Moon’s surface, as well as built a berm. The students, who competed against 37 other teams, won grand prize for the first time during the Lunabotics Challenge.

Read the full article online here.

Author Credit: UTSGC | Evan Lerner – College of Engineering | Elyna Niles-Carnes

Image Credit: UTSGC | NASA

Original Post Date: June 19, 2025

Other Relevant Links:

University of Utah News Story

NASA Press Release

Jessica Dodson, a senior majoring in biological systems engineering, has embarked on an innovative research project that bridges the gap between synthetic biology and space exploration. Her work, supported by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, affiliated with Old Dominion University (ODU), focuses on the resilience of microorganisms and their potential applications in enhancing plant survival in space.

Connecting with NASA

“I was really interested in recombinant DNA and genetic engineering,” Dodson said. “Within that realm, I’ve always been interested in tardigrades, which are these microorganisms that can survive extreme conditions like radiation, heat, and drought.”

Dodson’s fascination with genetic engineering and tardigrades led her to Assistant Professor Clay Wright’s plant synthetic biology lab, where she was introduced to the Virginia Space Grant Consortium program. The program encourages undergraduate research that aligns with NASA’s objectives, and Dodson saw an opportunity to connect her passion for genetic engineering with space exploration.

Her project involves using unique proteins found in tardigrades to create transgenic plants that can better withstand drought conditions. This research is particularly relevant to NASA, which in April 2023 failed to grow tomatoes on the International Space Station due to drought conditions.

By pretreating plant seeds with tardigrade proteins to improve their resilience and drought tolerance, Dodson’s project could prevent crop failures during future long-term space missions — essential to reducing dependency on Earth-based supplies and sustaining human life in space.

Read the full article on theroanokestar.com

Author Credit: The Roanoke Star

Image Credit: Photo courtesy of Jessica Dodson

Original Post Date: 5.15.25

The Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) has announced the recipients of its 2025-26 scholarships and fellowships. ASGC is located on the campus of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System.

The consortium was formed in 1989 when NASA implemented the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. It is a voluntary association of eight research universities in Alabama along with other community colleges, educational outreach, and industrial and government entities.

Undergraduate scholarship recipients are awarded $1,500, while graduate fellowship winners receive $37,000. A single asterisk by a student’s name denotes a one-year renewal of a previous scholarship or fellowship award while two asterisks indicate a two-year renewal of a previous fellowship award.

Read the full story on UAH.edu

Author Credit: Julie Jansen

Original Post Date: 6.2.25

Image Credit: UAH

April 22, 2025 – DENTON – To mitigate muscle loss in space, astronauts exercise up to four hours in a single day. What if they could achieve similar performance outcomes with less weight in a shorter time span? A team of Texas Woman’s kinesiology students researched, designed, fabricated and tested an wearable exercise device that could potentially transform astronauts’ workouts in space flight.

The team, dubbed Team Pleiades, took second place overall at a NASA-sponsored statewide design competition. The four seniors took first place in oral presentation and third for best poster. Team members Anaya Kashikar (team lead), Clay Martin, Martha Hinojosa and Matthew Pearson received scholarships for their project.

“This team’s ability to collaborate, and their genuine care for one another, allowed them to be very competitive at the design challenge,” said Rhett Rigby, interim director of the School of Health Promotion and Kinesiology and the team’s faculty advisor.

TWU was the only kinesiology department represented at the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge, which wrapped up April 18 just outside of Houston. The majority of the 25 college teams in the competition are engineering students.

Read the full article on TWU.edu

Author Credit: TX Woman’s University | College of Health Sciences

Image Credit: TX Woman’s University | College of Health Sciences

Original Post Date: 4.22.25

Uncrewed aerial vehicles, UAVs, more commonly known as drones, are innovative tools that grant users a bird’s eye view of the land below. Drones can traverse and capture large distances in a short amount of time – including areas that are inaccessible on foot.

While drones have been used for aerial photography and videography, innovations in technology have enabled drones to be used in search-and-rescue missions, deliveries, environmental research, and mapping.

Despite their relative ease of use, drones are not toys. They are best used by skilled pilots who are knowledgeable of safe flight operations. This is a principle that guides the missions of the University of Guam Drone Corps program.

Read the full article on: guampdn.com

Author Credit: University of Guam Drone Corps

Image Credit: University of Guam Drone Corps

Original Post Date: 4.25.25

Three West Virginia University students have been awarded the coveted Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, engineering and natural sciences which supports students with strong commitments to research careers.

Juniors Henry Coyle, an aerospace engineering major from Charlottesville, Virginia, Corinne Hazel, an environmental microbiology major from Delaware, Ohio, and Grady King, a data science major from Morgantown, will each receive $7,500 annually for up to two years of undergraduate study to further their research. All three are members of the Honors College.

“We are so proud to have three Goldwater Scholarship recipients at WVU who are a testament to the quality education we provide our students,” Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Kreider said. “Our investments in undergraduate research opportunities across the WVU System lead to these kinds of student success stories with wide-ranging benefits. Congratulations to these students and to our nationally recognized Office of Undergraduate Research.”

Henry Coyle
Although he’d always felt drawn to the field of engineering, Coyle’s passion for flight was born his senior year of high school while building a drone from scratch with classmates.

“It was the most enthralling experience,” he said. “We discovered this whole world of avionics and aerospace engineering and I just ran with it.”

That hands-on experience led Coyle to WVU where the strong aerospace engineering program at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources has provided ample opportunities for him to continue exploration of flight and space.

As a sophomore, Coyle joined the WVU Microgravity Research Team, which promotes aerospace investigations in a reduced gravity environment and is offered as a technical elective to some of the best performing mechanical and aerospace engineering undergraduate students.

Guided by mentor Patrick Browning, teaching associate professor in mechanical, materials and aerospace engineering, Coyle was tasked with developing an unmanned aerial vehicle that could replicate microgravity conditions.

With support from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the WVU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, he designed and built a drone capable of executing precise flight plans to mimic parabolic microgravity flights.

Read the full article on WVUToday

Author Credit: WVU

Image Credit: WVU Photo/Brian Persinger

Original Post Date: 4.2.25

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KCRG) – Students and professors at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls are exploring South Dakota’s Wind Cave, gathering research on how life could survive in extreme environments.

The UNI team is led by UNI chemistry and biochemistry professor Joshua Sebree, who started taking students on trips to study the cave in 2019. The years of research have built up- mapping out the cave and discovering chemical “fossils” by shining a black light on cave walls. “Every now and then you just come around a corner that you’ve never visited. You flip on your black light and you see something completely unexpected that nobody’s even documented before,” says Sebree.

Sebree says caves here on Earth are usual a hostile environment for life, with no nutrients, sun, and limited water. But Sebree’s team is applying their research off Earth, to other planets, and moons. “Europa and Enceladus and Titan all have icy bodies and subsurface oceans. Mars has a lot of evidence for water. So there’s a a high probability that if you want to think about the most hospitable place where you want life to be outside the solar system, it’s going to be a cave,” says Sebree.

The research is being pitched to NASA- with the goal of providing models and data that makes the search for life on other planets easier. The research is funded by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium.

Read the full article on: KCRG.com

Author Credit: Becky Phelps

Original Post Date: 4.27.25

We are excited to introduce our newest postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Allison McGraw, who recently joined the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI). Dr. McGraw is a planetary scientist whose research bridges the gap between meteorites and their asteroid sources. Her work centers on understanding the mineralogy and spectral characteristics of ordinary chondrites—the most common type of meteorite—and how they link back to specific asteroid families. Through laboratory spectroscopy and mineral analyses, Dr. McGraw aims to improve our understanding of the processes that shape asteroid surfaces and the evolution of planetary materials across the solar system.

Read our interview with Dr. McGraw below to learn more about her path to planetary science and her current research.

LPI: How did you become interested in planetary science?
AM: My interest in planetary science comes from a lifelong love of rocks combined with a deep curiosity about the sky. When I was about eight years old, I got a dirt bike, and it opened a whole new geological world. Riding through the southwestern U.S., I started noticing the vastness of the landscape—mountain ranges, rock layers, and the immense scale of it all. I remember trying to dig out a cool rock I found, and my dad told me, “That rock might be the size of a house—you’ll be digging for a while.” That was my first real moment of appreciating Earth as a giant, powerful rock. And although I don’t remember it, my parents flew me over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter when I was a baby. I like to think that early view may have planted a subconscious seed for my love of rocks and planetary landscapes.

LPI: When did you know that you wanted to pursue this as a career?
AM: I was stargazing one night in my father’s backyard when I realized I didn’t just want to admire the night sky—I wanted to understand it. I decided right then that I wanted to study planetary science. The very next morning, my dad helped me enroll in community college, starting with an algebra class. I was managing full-time work as a store manager while taking courses in math, physics, astronomy, and geology until I transferred to the University of Arizona. I got deeply involved in planetary research there—building digital terrain models for the Mars HiRISE instrument was a turning point. The beauty and detail in planetary data hooked me completely. Later, I was selected as an Arizona NASA Space Grant undergraduate researcher, which connected me with a mentor who encouraged me to pursue graduate school. That support changed everything.

Read the full article on: lpi.usra.edu

Image Credit: LPI

Author Credit: LPI

Original Post Date: 5.12.25

The University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources recognized outstanding educators and staff members at an annual awards banquet in Laramie recently.

“Each spring, we celebrate a few of the many exceptional faculty and staff in the college of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources. The accomplishments and unquestionable dedication of this year’s award recipients are inspiring to us all,” says Kelly Crane, dean of the college.

Staff Members Honored for Initiative, Positivity

Four staff members earned the Outstanding Staff Award for their contributions to the college.

Master technician David Claypool has worked for UW for over three decades. Claypool is dependable and takes initiative in high-stress situations.

“He leads by quiet example and has a tremendous work ethic,” says Andrew Kniss, head of the Department of Plant Sciences.

Nominators also note Claypool’s technical innovation, institutional and scientific knowledge, and willingness to share his expertise with others. He mentored undergraduate students Bree Drew and Sawyer Zook, who earned Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium Fellowships in 2024.

Read the full article on: UWYO.edu

Author Credit: University of Wyoming | News

Original Post Date: 5.13.25