Houston Students Lead Team Participation in NASA Challenge

October 30, 2019

Houston Students Lead Team Participation in NASA Challenge

Featured Article

Publication Date: 10/30/2019

Mechanical and electrical senior design students from the Houston Engineering Center secured 20 percent of the spots for participation in the annual Texas Space Grant Consortium NASA Design Challenge for Fall 2019. 

"Two years ago, we had one team selected, they had a great outcome and the following year we had three teams selected to participate and one of them finished second overall," said Dr. Andres Garcia, director of Houston Engineering Center. "Now, we make up 20 percent of participants with four teams participating. I'm not only excited about the outcome and for our students, but what it means for future growth." 

Sponsored by NASA and administered by the Texas Space Grant Consortium since 2002, the Design Challenge is a unique academic experience offering undergraduate students an opportunity to propose, design and fabricate a solution to a toward solving research objectives of importance to NASA and its mission.

"The beauty of this competition is that these students get real-world and applicable feedback and experience from NASA advisors, and if one of their ideas is selected by NASA it will be used by NASA. That exposure alone is priceless," said Garcia.

Design Challenge topics are submitted by researchers working with NASA or its contractor community on current projects of interest within NASA's Vision for Space Exploration.

Teams and students participating are:

ApolloX: Buchanon Dowling*, Mathew Shaefer, Alyssa Munoz, Gaafar Mohamed

Eagle Energy: Abdulaziz Shinwari*, Fernando Loyola, Abiola ILORI, Samreen Hoda, Marcos Martinez, Gihan Ponweera

The Houston Heat: David Desantiago, Andrew McNiel, Omar Ramirez*, Yousef Rida, Jacqueline Rodriguez, Marcos Trevino

STEMbiosis: Shawn Yarbrough, Samuel Najar*, Yared Mulugeta, John Tong, Flavio Santos, Andrew Tran

*denotes team leader

The Design Challenge Showcase takes place November 20-21, 2019 in Houston, Texas.

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