The Sky’s the Limit

Project Blue Horizon
As part of their senior capstone project, three engineering students collect atmospheric data by creating a functioning weather balloon as part of Lockheed Martin’s Project Blue Horizon.

All electro-mechanical engineering technology majors at Penn State Altoona are required to complete a senior capstone in order to graduate. This fall, three young men worked on Project Blue Horizon (PBH), the first project sponsored at Penn State Altoona by Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company in Bethesda, Maryland.

Trevor Travis, Marcus McFarland, and Dimitris Kiaoulias made up the team tasked with building an amateur weather balloon to collect atmospheric data from high altitudes. Lockheed Martin has sponsored PBH with graduate students at other colleges like Cornell. Steve Betza, corporate director of the Future Enterprise Initiative at Lockheed Martin and former Penn State Altoona student, sits on the college’s Industrial Advisory Committee. Betza has attended the EMET student showcase for several years, and thought PBH would be a good fit as a senior capstone project for Altoona EMET majors. “As I was looking to partner with an EMET program, there was no more natural project than this,” says Betza. With PBH, students gain great experience in electrical design and packaging. I have the highest respect for the Altoona EMET degree, which I believe is a degree of the future in terms of blending electrical and mechanical engineering. Here, students come out with a background in both disciplines.”  Read the full story.