For Katie Durkee ’24 M.S., the opportunities she’s had to conduct research have enabled her to pursue her interests and discover new passions. A strong believer in the ability of research to help yield new discoveries, she hopes her own work can play an important role in furthering knowledge and innovation on Earth – and beyond.

Durkee is reaching for the stars with her research, which was recently awarded a graduate research grant from the NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium (CTSGC). Her project explores the development of self-healing polymers from biomass (organic) resources for space-related applications. Petroleum resources are currently used to generate polymers, she explains, and these are expected to become increasingly depleted in the coming decades.

Read the full article on University of New Haven’s News page.

Author Credit:  Renee Chmiel

Image Credit: University of New Haven

Original Post Date: July 27, 2023

On eclipse day, hundreds of students will send up balloons for science

CUMBERLAND, Md. — It’s a chilly March morning, and Mary Bowden is standing in the parking lot of a local community college.

Bowden is a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. Nearby, her students are hustling around on a bright blue tarp, rolling out heavy cylinders of compressed gas and fiddling with boxes of electronics.

“This is our final, final dress rehearsal,” Bowden says as she surveys the scene.

At the start of next month, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the continental United States. It will begin in Texas and move north through a dozen states before exiting the country through Maine and into Canada.

On eclipse day — April 8 — dozens of student teams across the country will release hundreds of research balloons. The balloons will carry long, dangling strings of scientific instruments into the path of totality, the area on Earth’s surface that will see the moon completely block the sun.

The effort, known as the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, is backed by NASA. It’s an opportunity to make unique atmospheric measurements that can only be done during an eclipse, and a chance for students to learn skills they may someday use to launch satellites and astronauts into orbit. Bowden is guiding the University of Maryland team, which is made up of about 30 to 40 students.

Read the full story on NPR.

Author Credit: Geoff Brumfiel

Image Credit: Meredith Rizzo for NPR

Seventeen students from Missouri S&T are conducting NASA-funded research that may directly affect the space agency’s work.

These students are interns and fellows as part of the Missouri Space Grant Consortium, which is administered by Missouri S&T.

Since the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program was established in 1989, Missouri S&T has led the NASA initiative for the state of Missouri for most of its existence. NASA has one program for each of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., with the goal of further developing the nation’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related workforce.

Read the full article: on Missouri University of Science and Technology “News and Events.”

Author Credit: Greg Edwards

Image Credit: Ashton Ventura

Original Post Date: December 19, 2023

Three Utah State University engineering students were awarded funding on behalf of the Utah Space Grant Consortium for internships this past summer.

Adam Weaver, a recent graduate student at USU studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis in aerospace engineering, and Payton Taylor, a senior also studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis in aerospace engineering, received $6,200 each for their internships at Northrop Grumman. They worked in the propulsion systems department for four months.

“I was very thankful for this opportunity and excited that I was a recipient,” Weaver said. “The internship was a great experience.”

In addition to Weaver and Taylor, Bryan Gricius, who also graduated with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, received funding for his internship at the Space Dynamics Laboratory as an opto-mechanical engineering intern. His job was to assist in the development and construction of a space telescope.

Read the full article on Utah State TODAY.

Author Credit: Sydney Dahle

Image Credit: NASA

NASA has issued new grants to five universities to help develop education plans for the community overflight phase of the agency’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate the possibility of supersonic flight without the typical loud sonic booms.

The new grants, from NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, will provide each university team with $40,000 to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement strategic implementation plans for those Quesst community overflights. The awards will focus on plans for engaging with students and educators in the communities that NASA will eventually select for overflights. This will help ensure communities are accurately informed about this phase of Quesst and what involvement in the mission will look like for their community.

“The Quesst mission is unique at NASA, with community input playing a major part in its success,” said Eric Miller, deputy mission integration manager for Quesst. “These new awards will allow NASA to learn from other STEM professionals, informing us as we develop a framework to effectively engage with students and educators.”

The selected institutions and their projects, are:

• Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin – STEM Quesst, Wisconsin Space Grant
• Cornell University, Ithaca, New York –Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement New York Space Grant Consortium
• Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia – Engaging the National NASA Space Grant Network in Support of the Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement
• University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico – Space Grant Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement: Sounds of Our World
• University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California – California Space Grant Planning Support for the Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement

Read the full article on NASA.gov

Author Credit: Lauren E. Low

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin / Michael Jackson

Southwestern Oregon Community College wishes to congratulate our S.P.E.A.R. (STEAM Pathways Experimental & Academic Research) Team Member Cameron Miller for being selected for a 2023-24 Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) Student Academic Research Review (STARR) award in the amount of $3,000 for Nuclear Propulsion research.

Cameron is currently a sophomore Mechanical Engineering student at Southwestern and plans to transfer into the Nuclear Engineering program at Oregon State University (OSU) after he graduates. For his research project, Cameron will be investigating the current state of research into nuclear propulsion systems with particular applications to aerospace.

Read the full article on Cannon Beach Gazette.

Author Credit: Cannon Beach Gazette

Image Credit: Cannon Beach Gazette

Sophomore electrical engineering student Grace McKenna started working with NASA in the Here to Observe (H2O) program in September 2023. The program gives undergraduate students the opportunity to observe and interact with NASA Planetary Science Division teams, with the goal of inspiring historically marginalized groups to be a part of the STEM workforce.

McKenna is currently working on the Europa Clipper mission that will launch later this year.

“The mission is to send a spacecraft to Europa to fly by and take different captures, measurements, all kinds of data, to let us know a little bit more about Europa because it has an ice shell,” McKenna said. “We are looking to see what it’s composed of because the details of that are still unknown.”

Read the full article on udayton.edu

Author Credit: University of Dayton Blogs

Image Credit: University of Dayton Blogs

UNLV students are launching a balloon 100,000 ft. with live-streaming cameras. Why?

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — UNLV engineering students plan to launch a balloon on Oct. 14 to capture “valuable engineering data” during upcoming solar eclipses.

“The last time the moon blocked out the sun in 2017, the skies above Las Vegas were covered in clouds, and rain poured down across the Valley,” said officials with the university. “A rare celestial event obscured by an unlikely weather phenomenon for a desert city and its inhabitants.”

Read the full story on KTNV.com.

The next series of launches is set for early April for the total solar eclipse!

Author Credit: KTNV.com

Image Credit: UNLV

From stargazing as a child in his hometown of Evansville to working as an undergraduate researcher inside the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Upham Hall, Nick Barmore has always had an interest in space.

That passion, combined with the support of UW-Whitewater’s chemistry department, earned Barmore a prestigious $4,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) as part of the Undergraduate Research Awards Program.

Watch the YouTube video and read the full story on uww.edu.

Written by Chris Lindeke | Video by Kyle Winter | Photos by Craig Schreiner