Student Projects and Awards

Drexel University
Project: High Altitude Balloon Launch

In September, 2010, Dr. Jin Kang and students from the Drexel Space Systems Laboratory launched its second high-altitude balloon. The balloon was launched in Annville, PA and traveled 20 miles into the atmosphere. As the balloon flew it took photographs and measured temperature and pressure from various sensors. It landed in Coatesville, PA. In the photos, we can see the curvature of the Earth and even see the pieces from the popped balloon. It was a very exciting time for Dr. Kang and his students.


 

Gannon University
Award: MTT Gold Award

Gannon University won the GOLD Award in the 2010 International Design Project Video Competition entitled “Systems Thinking in Engineering Design.” The video was produced by 10 electrical and computer engineering students for their senior design project: the launching and tracking of a high-altitude, helium-powered weather balloon.


 

Penn State – University Park
Project: Student Space Programs Laboratory

The Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) at the Pennsylvania State University allows undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to design, fabricate, and integrate space systems. The SSPL provides hands-on projects to apply classroom knowledge to real world, interdisciplinary settings. In January, 2011 SSPL’s proposal for the OSIRIS Lite 2 payload on HASP has been accepted. HASP provides the opportunity for student payloads to fly at the edge of space to support science and technology development missions. The payload this year is a continuation of SSPL’s OSIRIS CubeSat development program where the complete spacecraft bus will be demonstrated in the flight form factor.


Abington

Left to right, Danielle Brennan, Jiten Patel, Farhad Evoghlian, Josh Fixelle, Andrew Menezes, Tiarra Pettus-Kellog, Nina Rao Not pictured are Robert Arrowood, Ashka Pandya, Shikha Sharma, Vrujesh Patel

 

Penn State – Abington
Project: Undergraduate Project in Radio Astronomy

A team undergraduate students from Penn State Abington returned to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank WV to measure the 21 cm radiation of cold hydrogen gas from the Milky Way galaxy and other sources. The projects included calibrating the sensitivity of the 40 foot diameter radio telescope for faint sources as well as measuring the velocity of hydrogen gas clouds in the galactic plane using the Doppler effect. This research project gives students, many of whom are in their first two years of undergraduate curriculum, the opportunity to participate in scientific research. Students take charge of the project from the outset and have direct hands-on control in slewing the telescope. Data analysis is supervised by second year students. The team presented two posters this year at the undergraduate research fair at Abington in April, 2011.


 

California University of Pennsylvania
Project: Google Earth Lesson Competition

For the third consecutive year, California University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium collaborated on a Google Earth Competition. California University of Pennsylvania students created Google Earth exercises based on the Pennsylvania state standards. The top three were awarded scholarships. The 2011 awardees are: 1st place – Karen Babyak ($3,000); 2nd place – Don Hilenbrant ($2,000); 3rd place – Amber Hill ($750).


 

Penn State – University Park
Project: Successful Maiden Flight of PSU Zephyrus

The maiden flight of the PSU Zephyrus took place successfully at dawn on Monday, April 15, 2011 at the Mifflin County airport. Under the leadership of Prof. Mark Maughmer and Ms. Julia Cole, the “Sailplane Class” (AERSP 2/404H) has been pursuing for several years the design and development of a human-powered aircraft to compete for the Kremer International Sporting Aircraft Prize. First flight was of a radio-controlled version — they will need to further explore the stability and handling characteristics prior to modifying the airplane for human-powered flight. The students have done impressive and amazing work on a shoestring budget and with “non-optimal” space and facilities.

zephyrus

The maiden flight of the PSU Zephyrus – This aircraft has a wingspan of 22.5 meters (74 ft) and was flown using small electric motors and a remote control system. It was considerably underloaded for its first flight test, weighing about 80 lbs. The goal for this aircraft is ultimately to compete for the Kremer prize for sport as a human powered aircraft.

sailplane

The 2010/11 PSU Sailplane class


 

Central High School – RoboLancers
Award: BEST World Championship

Central High School RoboLancers placed second for the Best Team Video Award and third for the Best Project Engineering Notebook Award at the Boosting Engineering Science & Technology Champions at the ESPN Center in Orlando Florida–Led by Daniel Ueda, Robotics Coach and Velda Morris, Philadelphia BEST Hub Director. BEST is a middle and high school robotics competition designed to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology and to inspire them to pursue careers in these fields. Congratulations, Philadelphia BEST!

best1

best2


 

Temple University
Award: 2nd Place in Nationwide NASA Contest

The NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate awarded Temple University’s student paper second place in the 2011 Systems Engineering Paper Competition. The team won $2,500 cash scholarship and launch tickets to the last shuttle mission at Kennedy Space Center. Congratulations go to Dr. John Helferty and his team, including Cara Santin who spent well into one hundred hours on the writing of this paper.


 

Two Pennsylvania Teams Compete for the Google Lunar X Prize

The PSGC is proudly supporting two teams in the $20 million Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition. The Lunar X PRIZE Competition challenges researchers from around the globe to build and launch a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and imaging tasks. To win the grand prize of $20 million, a team must be the first to place a vehicle on the moon’s surface that explores at least two locations a third of a mile apart. The vehicle must transmit high-resolution images of both locations back to Earth. The second team to accomplish this feat will win $5 million. The teams have until December 31, 2015, to accomplish the task.

The PSGC will support four student interns from three major universities (Carnegie Mellon University, Lehigh University, and The Pennsylvania State University) for this new initiative starting Summer 2011. Two Pennsylvania teams will be competing for the prize: the Penn State Lunar Lion team led by Michael Paul from the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University’s Lunar X Mission team led by Red Whittaker at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Both teams consist of a combination of university students and faculty researchers, and are also pursuing partnerships with companies throughout the aerospace industry. This program illustrates the uniqueness of Pennsylvania as it is the only state with two university-led competing teams and involves participation from various Space Grant affiliates.


 

Penn State – Wilkes- Barre
Project: High Altitude Balloon Launch

In November, 2010, Penn State Wilkes-Barre held its first high-altitude balloon launch. A team of faculty and students led by Penn State Wilkes-Barre faculty members Dr. Albert Lozano-Nieto, Professor of Engineering, and Dr. Jon Carson, Associate Professor of Engineering, assembled the payloads, launched the balloon, tracked, and recovered the balloon and all the payloads.

The flight lasted approximately two hours. The balloon was launched from the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus and landed in the Delaware Water Gap close to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border after reaching an altitude of 85,000 feet. Students were able to retrieve video from three different cameras in the payloads as well as to obtain environmental data such as temperature, pressure and humidity during the flight. The coldest temperature was -46 degrees Fahrenheit while the lowest atmospheric pressure 0.25 psi.

wilkes

Members of the high-altitude balloon launch team: Front row: Daniel Dymond, Dr. Albert Lozano-Nieto, Vidur Ramlall, Kyle Casterline, Dr. Jon Carson Back Row: Steven Lutz, Ryan Hammond, Robert Charles


 

Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg Colleges 
Project: NURO

Neighboring colleges Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg, are both members of the National Undergraduate Research Observatory, or NURO. NURO is a professional astronomical observing site with instrument time dedicated to undergraduate research and training. Bringing students to the NURO telescope to participate in this unique field of study allows high quality observing which not only significantly advances the research but also engages undergraduates in the numerous hands-on aspects of observational astronomy. Primary NURO projects involve ongoing photometry of variable stars.

nuro

F&M students in the NURO dome prior to observing


 

Drexel University
Project: Space Systems Laboratory

The Drexel Space Systems Laboratory was started to cultivate future leaders in space technology. The lab prepares students to take leading roles after graduation, both in industry and as researchers. Members of the lab accomplished many successful projects in 2010.

Drexel University’s CubeSat in Microgravity has been selected to participate in NASA’s 2011 Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Students ran experiments in low gravity on a NASA training plane. After training, these engineering students will test a component of a satellite they are building to capture images of the aurora borealis.

A team of five senior design students were allotted a half-canister space to develop a scientific/engineering payload to be launched on a sounding rocket as part of the RockSat-C program.

darcy

Matthew D’Arcy, a second-year Drexel University electrical engineering student preparing experiments for NASA’s training plane.


 

temple_rocket

Carrying projects created by Temple engineering students, a two-stage solid booster rocket launched from Wallops Island Flight soars to an altitude of 73 miles.

Temple University
Project: Students Launch Experiments on NASA Rocket

Nine Temple University engineering students spent the 2010-11 school year designing and building two experiments as a part of RockSat that were launched from Wallops Island Flight Facility June 23, 2011 aboard the two-stage solid booster rocket Terrier Orion II. Led by faculty advisor Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor John Helferty, students designed and constructed an active vibration suppression system for testing on the rocket as their senior design project. The rocket soared to an altitude of 73 miles and traveled approximately 50 miles before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket was recovered and the payloads were brought back to Wallops Island where the team could retrieve its data.

temple

Electrical and computer engineering students (from top) Allison Tierney, Yuri Apel and Bill Bagdon check their experiment package as they prepare it for launch.

 


 

Penn State University
Project: Student Launch Initiative Competition

Eighteen Penn State students traveled to Huntsville, AL in early April, 2011 for Penn State’s first entry into the University Student Launch Initiative. Close to thirty teams were represented in the contest this year. Although they did not bring home any medals, the team did Penn State proud with a flawless flight of a 6” diameter high-powered model rocket. The launch was a culmination of two years of hard work by this dedicated group. In addition to designing and performing multiple test flights of the competition rocket, they established a popular high-powered rocketry club at Penn State, trained and certified fellow students for safe high-powered rocket handling and conducted several outreach events at area schools. The students were treated to several workshops and tours of Marshall Space Flight Center while in Huntsville which left them truly inspired. A new set of officers are hard at work planning a return to the competition in April 2012.


 

 

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