2022 NIA Key Activities

Week Ending Dec. 9, 2022

NIA/NASA Disasters Staff Participate in Understanding Risk Global Forum 2022

On Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2022, NIA communications manager, Timothy “Seph” Allen and science communication specialist, Gabriella Lewis represented the NASA Earth Applied Science Disasters Program at the Understanding Risk Conference (UR22) in Florianopolis, Brazil. Allen provided strategic communications planning and support, and both staffed NASA’s booth and represented the agency to international attendees with other NASA staff.

The biennial conference was organized by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), The World Bank, and Prefeitura de Florianopolis (Florianopolis City Hall). At the conference academics, policymakers, private sector, community organizations, and development partners discussed and shared the latest research, innovative projects, and emerging ideas in disaster risk management. Allen and Lewis’ focused on fostering non-traditional interactions and partnerships. They also participated in various seminars and assisted with a presentation on Risk Communication Planning by BBC World at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Week Ending Oct. 28, 2022

2023 RASC-AL Competition Receives 75 Notices of Intent

On Oct. 14, 2022, seventy-five (75) eligible student teams from forty-eight (48) different universities submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) to participate in the 2023 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition. This year’s themes range from supporting lunar operations and tourism at the south and north poles to enabling long-term survival on the surface of Mars.

NOIs were received from forty-eight (48) different universities. Twenty-seven (27) of the submissions were from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). Five (5) teams indicated they would participate in the Graduate category. Teams who submitted Notices of Intent have been invited to a Q&A Session with the NASA sponsors on Oct. 27 from 3-4:30 PM EDT.

Proposal and video submissions for the 2023 RASC-AL Competition are due by 11:59 PM EDT on March 13, 2023, and up to fourteen (14) teams will be selected to present their concepts during the RASC-AL Forum taking place June 12-14, 2022, in Cocoa Beach, FL.

The 2023 RASC-AL Competition is sponsored by the Moon to Mars Architecture Development Office within the Exploration Systems Development Directorate at NASA Headquarters and by the Space Mission Analysis Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

RASC-AL Competition Website: https://rascal.nianet.org

2023 Gateway to Blue Skies Competition Receives 27 NOIs From University Teams

To indicate their interest in participating in the 2023 Gateway to Blue Skies Competition, university teams were encouraged to submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) by 11:59 PM ET on Oct. 17, 2022. This year’s ‘Clean Aviation Energy’ theme asks undergraduate and graduate students to conceptualize the source-to-flight lifecycle of one potential clean aviation energy source of the 2050s, in terms of feasibility, viability, and environmental impact.

Twenty-seven (27) eligible NOIs were received from 21 lead institutions across 13 states, including 10 Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). NOIs were received from the following schools:

Boston University (2)
Carnegie Mellon University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Manhattan College
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology*
Ohio State University (2)
Oregon State University
Purdue University (3)
San Diego State University*
Stanford University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University with University of Washington⁺
University of California, Irvine*
University of California, San Diego*
University of Central Florida*
University of Houston*
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland
University of North Texas*
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas, Austin (2)
Virginia Polytechnic and State University*

* Minority-Serving Institutions
⁺ Partnering Universities

Proposal and video submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Feb. 28, 2023, and up to eight (8) teams will be selected to present their concepts during the Gateway to Blue Skies Forum at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH.

The 2023 Blue Skies Competition is sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s University Innovation Project and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.

Blue Skies Competition Website: http://blueskies.nianet.org

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Presents at 153rd AES Convention

Menachem Rafaelof, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented “An Algorithm for Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP) of an Arbitrary Signal in the Presence of Noise” during the 153^rd Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in New York City. This workshop presented the first opportunity to present this ongoing work outside NASA to attendees interested in psychoacoustics, audibility prediction and predicting noise due to the operation of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles and its impact on the public attended this workshop.

Abstract:
A method for predicting the audibility of an arbitrary time-varying noise (signal) in the presence of masking noise has been developed. The statistical audibility prediction (SAP) method relies on the specific loudness, or loudness perceived through the individual auditory filters, for accurate statistical estimation of audibility vs. time. More recent development has focused on derivation and inclusion of frequency-dependent correction factors in SAP’s model to account for the ability to hear signals below the level of the masking noise. Audibility prediction vs. time is intuitive since it captures changes in audibility with time as it occurs, which is critical for the study of human response to noise. Concurrently, time-frequency prediction of audibility may also provide valuable information about the root cause(s) for audibility useful for the design and operation of sources of noise. Empirical data, gathered under a three-alternative forced-choice (3AFC) test paradigm for low-frequency sound, has been used to examine the accuracy of SAP.

NIA Research Engineer Presents at NASA Glenn Acoustics Technical Working Group

Jacob Revesz, Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented “Methods of Weather Data Collection using Multirotor UAS” at the NASA Glenn Acoustics Technical Working Group in Cleveland, OH. The meeting was held Oct. 18-19, 2022.

NIA Research Scholar Presents at Radiation Research Society Annual Meeting

Dr. Kathleen Miller, Research Scholar at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) presented at the annual Radiation Research Society meeting in Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii on Oct. 15-19, 2022. Dr. Miller attended the “scholar in training” workshop.

Miller KB, Mi KL, Nelson GA, Norman RB, Patel ZS, Huff JL. “Framework for Neurovascular Contributions to Dementia in Space Radiation Relevant Exposures” Radiation Research Society Annual Meeting, Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii, Oct. 2022.

Week Ending Oct. 7, 2022

NASA eClips™ Releases New NASA’s Real World Video for Middle School Students

Designed for students in grades 6-8 to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem-solving, NASA eClips’ Real World videos connect classroom mathematics to 21st-century careers and innovations. The newest video, NASA’s Real World “Small Systems Count – Cells in Space,” features subject matter expert Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute, a space biologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. In this video, students learn how NASA scientists study cells on Earth to learn how to protect astronauts from radiation during space flights. Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute describes changes in cells and cell organelles and compares quantitative and qualitative data to demonstrate how to calculate the percentage of mutated cells.

Resources Shared:
To watch the video NASA’s Real World “Small Systems Count – Cells in Space,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/realworld/real-world-small-systems-count-cells-in-space.

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov.

NASA eClips™ Publishes Newly Revised Engineering Design Packets and Implementation Guide

The National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) used an intentional design approach to create a packet meeting the needs of learners and educators. NIA-CISE invited a diverse group of formal and nonformal educators from the NASA eClips Advisory Boards to have a seat at the table to help update the Engineering Design Packets (EDP). The collaboration with this group of educators was valuable in the redesign process and resulted in the creation of a set of NASA eClips resources for elementary and secondary classes.

Another group of educators from across the United States was selected to pilot the EDPs. Dr. Bradford Davey of Technology for Learning Consortium, Inc. surveyed the pilot groups about their experience and collected anecdotal data from learners. NIA-CISE Education Team used the feedback provided by educators to improve the packets before publishing for the 2022-2023 school year. The EDPs are editable and can be used with any engineering design challenge.

The Education Team from NIA-CISE includes Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), and Betsy McAllister (NIA Educator in Residence).

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov.

To access the new Elementary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/46.

To access the new Secondary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/45.

To access the Engineering Design Packet Implementation Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/112.

NASA eClips™ Partners with NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative to Develop NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives

NASA eClips has partnered with NASA’s Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), The GLOBE Program, and GLOBE Observer to co-develop and promote the newest NASA Spotlite Challenge, Land Detectives. As NASA Land Detectives, participants are challenged to gather and share evidence to confront misconceptions about Earth’s land cover. Land cover is what is on Earth’s surface, such as trees, grass, pavement, and buildings.

The Challenge focuses on two misconceptions about land cover: 1) Land cover doesn’t change. 2) The land cover of an area doesn’t matter. Student teams are asked to select one of the misconceptions to investigate and make a claim to debunk or refute. Teams are then challenged to make observations and gather evidence to support their claim. Student teams write an engaging script and produce a 90 to 120-second video that addresses the misconception. In the video, teams conduct a demonstration/experiment or show how they used GLOBE protocols (GLOBE Observer app or GLOBE data sheets) to disprove the misconception. The videos encourage other students to engage in science by trying the demonstration and the GLOBE Observer app, with the necessary support and supervision.

The NASA Spotlite Challenge: Land Detectives is currently accepting student production team submissions. All submissions must be received no later than Dec. 9, 2022, for the fall semester and March 24, 2023, for the spring semester.

Resources Shared:
To view the NASA Spotlite Challenge: Land Detectives, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge/5.

To learn more about NASA Spotlite Design Challenges, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge.

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov.

To learn more about the GLOBE Program, please visit https://www.globe.gov.

To learn more about the GLOBE Observer app, please visit https://observer.globe.gov.

NASA eClips™ Supports GLOBE Clouds Match to a Million Celebration

The NASA eClips education team from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrated STEM Education (NIA-CISE) joined researchers, learners, and other educators from across the country to present a poster at the GLOBE Clouds Match to a Million Celebration on Sept. 13, 2022, at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The event celebrated GLOBE Clouds’ one million satellite matches to GLOBE Clouds citizen science data.

NASA eClips has been a longtime partner with The GLOBE Program and, in particular GLOBE Clouds. The educators proudly shared multiple ways NASA eClips and GLOBE resources have leveraged and enriched each other with attendees.

NASA eClips has partnered with the GLOBE Program, GLOBE Observer, and NASA’s Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) to co-design and deliver integrative project-based and learner-centered challenges such as the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Cloud Detectives and NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives. The Cloud Detectives Spotlite Design Challenge, which runs continuously, asks learners to select one of two misconceptions about clouds. Teams investigate, make observations, and gather evidence to support their claim about clouds by collecting data using GLOBE Observer. Teams are then tasked with producing a short video that debunks the misconception. For disproving the misconception that “all clouds produce rain,” students at New York School for the Deaf created several videos, including Spotlite “The Rain Cloud.”

NASA eClips has also worked with The GLOBE Program to embed community-based integrative STEM experiences into curricula such as through training with the New York State Master Teachers Program, where 10 teachers were trained and 900 students were impacted, and Hampton City Schools, where 52 educators have been trained on GLOBE protocols and 1,945 learners were impacted. The GLOBE Program has provided a real-world context for learners to collect and analyze data.

Many NASA eClips resources, such as the Our World: Designing a Cloud Cover Estimator Educator Guide, point to aligned GLOBE activities, helping to provide a variety of experiences educators can use in helping to build learner’s science practices and knowledge.

The NASE eClips education team consists of Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior Education Specialist), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist) and Betsy McAllister (Educator in Residence).

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov..

To view the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Cloud Detectives, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge/4.

To view the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge/5.

To watch the video, Spotlite “The Rain Cloud,” please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JVgXZsdBgDD5pnNxxvxXZdsX5CF09apX/view.

To view the Our World: Designing a Cloud Cover Estimator Educator Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/83.

UAS Atmospheric Measurements Supporting CST Learjet Acoustic Tests with GRC

A UAS, operated by personnel from Langley’s UASOO and National Institute of Aerospace’s Research Engineer, Jacob Revesz, conducted atmospheric characterization flights to support Acoustic Testing for the Commercial Supersonic Technology project.

In support of a Commercial Supersonic Technology project managed out of GRC, Langley personnel from the UASOO conducted 12 research flights with a UAS at Niagara Falls International Airport. The flights were used to characterize the weather conditions between an array of microphones on the ground and a Learjet operated by Calspan that flew over the array. Previous experiments utilized a weather balloon that had to be deployed and retracted each time to make the measurements. The UAS was easier to launch/recover, provided more consistent profiles and was logistically easier to operate. The UAS team has been invited to the Acoustics Technical Working Group meeting at GRC in Oct. to discuss the use of drones to measure weather information for flight tests.

Directorate: D1 – Research Services Directorate
Key POC: D101 – Thomas Jordan
Audience: OD
Event Date: Sept. 9, 2022

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminar at Boeing India

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, a Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented “Hydrodynamic Instabilities of Hypersonic Flow over Cone-Cylinder-Flare Model” during the Tech Talk Seminar Series hosted by Boeing India Private Limited. The Tech Talk Seminar Series was held Oct. 13, 2022.

Week Ending Sept. 30, 2022

NIA Research Scientist Presents at University of Wisconsin

Dr. Kathleen Miller, a Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented at the University of Wisconsin- Madison Department of Kinesiology Seminar Series. The title of the talk was “Ionizing Radiation and the Central Nervous System: Thinking about the Brain in Space.” The presentation was held on Sept. 23, 2022, in Madison, WI.

Abstract:
Space exploration requires the characterization and management or mitigation of a variety of human health risks. Exposure to space radiation is one of the main health concerns because it has the potential to increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and both acute and late neurodegeneration. Space radiation-induced decrements to the vascular system may impact the risk for cerebrovascular disease and consequent dementia. These risks may be independent or synergistic with direct damage to central nervous system tissues. The purpose of this work is to review epidemiological and experimental data regarding the impact of low-to-moderate dose ionizing radiation on the central nervous system and the cerebrovascular system. A proposed framework outlines how space radiation-induced effects on the vasculature may increase risk for both cerebrovascular dysfunction and neural and cognitive adverse outcomes. The results of this work suggest that there are multiple processes by which ionizing radiation exposure may impact cerebrovascular function including increases in oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, endothelial cell dysfunction, arterial stiffening, atherosclerosis, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Cerebrovascular adverse outcomes may also promote neural and cognitive adverse outcomes. However, there are many gaps in both the human and preclinical evidence base regarding the long-term impact of ionizing radiation exposure on brain health due to heterogeneity in both exposures and outcomes. The unique composition of the space radiation environment makes the translation of the evidence base from terrestrial exposures to space exposures difficult. Additional investigation and understanding of the impact of low-to-moderate doses of ionizing radiation including high (H) atomic number (Z) and energy (E) (HZE) ions on the cerebrovascular system is needed. Furthermore, investigation of how decrements in vascular systems may contribute to development of neurodegenerative diseases in independent or synergistic pathways is important for protecting the long-term health of astronauts.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Awarded FY23 NAVAL HPC Pathfinder Proposal

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, a Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), submitted an FY23 NAVAL HPC Pathfinder Proposal that was awarded on Sept. 28, 2022. Paredes Gonzalez and the team will initially receive 2.7M CPU hours (to be extended as used) with elevated priority in the DoD systems. Pathfinder project allocations will have elevated priority queue time at all the DoD Supercomputer Resource Centers (DSRCs). Proposals are part of the Naval HPC Program for DoD Navy projects.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminars

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, a Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), gave invited seminars virtually at the 6th Symposium Mechanical Engineering Postgraduate Program and Fluid Dynamics Reviews Seminar Series.

Paredes, P. “Flow Instabilities Over Hypersonic Cone-Cylinder-Flare Model,” 6th Symposium Mechanical Engineering Postgraduate Program, Engineering School of Sao Carlos (EESC), University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil, Sept. 29, 2022. Virtual
Paredes, P., “Convective and Global Instabilities Over Hypersonic Configurations with Flow Separation,” Fluid Dynamics Reviews Seminar Series, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, Sept. 30, 2022.

Week Ending Sept. 23, 2022

New FAA Traffic Flow Management – Application Integration Design Challenge Announced

On Sept. 26, 2022, NIA and the FAA officially announced an all-new FAA Traffic Flow Management – Application Integration (TFM-AID) Design Challenge. The Challenge seeks designs for a proposed Graphical User Interface (GUI) that supports traffic managers (e.g., TMCs and NTMSs) in performing these tasks with a more streamlined and modernized interface. The scope of the TFM-AID Challenge will center on designing an integrated display to support traffic managers in an Airspace Flow Program (AFP) TMI scenario.

Teams of 2-10 students will submit a 12 to 15-page Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and 2-minute video that summarizes their design’s key features and innovations. Based on the TFM-AID judges’ evaluation of teams’ PDR packages, up to 5 teams will be selected to continue developing their projects into a Critical Design Review (CDR) package. CDRs will be presented by teams and evaluated at the onsite FAA TFM-AID Challenge Forum, held in late June 2023 in the Northern Virginia / Washington D.C. Metro Area. The first-place overall winner will be presented with a $25,000 grand prize.

Expressions of Interest are due by Oct. 30, 2022. PDR submission packages are due on March 2, 2023.

The FAA Traffic Flow Management – Application Integration Design Challenge is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ‘s FDMS Program and is managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.

FAA TFM-AID Website: https://faa-tfm-aid.nianet.org

NIA Research Fellow Participates in 37th Annual ASC Technical Conference

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), traveled to Tucson, AZ, to participate in the 37th Annual Technical Conference of the American Society for Composites (ASC). This was the first face-to-face conference since 2019. Dr. Krueger presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Nelson V. de Carvalho (NASA LaRC – D309) on “Development of a C-ELS Specimen-Based Numerical Benchmark for Mode II Delamination and Assessment of Two VCCT-Based Propagation Strategies”.

Dr. Krueger also attended the bi-annual meeting of ASTM committee D30 on Composite Materials, which was co-located with the ASC conference. This ASTM committee develops standard test methods, practices, terminology, and guides pertaining to composite materials. Stakeholders for the work include certification authorities, industry, academia, and government research facilities. Dr. Krueger currently serves as the chair of the committee and led the meetings of the executive and main committees.

NIA Senior Research Engineer AIAA Journal Receives Volume and Date of Publication

NIA Senior Research Engineer Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez’s, most recent AIAA Journal publication has received a volume and date of publication. “Boundary-Layer Instabilities over a Cone–Cylinder–Flare Model at Mach 6,” by Pedro Paredes, Anton Scholten, Meelan M. Choudhari, Fei Li, Elizabeth K. Benitez, and Joseph S. Jewell, will be published in AIAA Journal Volume 60, Number 10 in Oct. 2022. doi: doi/abs/10.2514/1.J061829

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents at IFS Research Review Forum Tech Talk

Dr. Laura Titolo, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented “Taming numerical errors in safety-critical avionics applications” at the Intelligent Flight Systems (IFS) Research Review Forum Tech Talk held virtually at NASA Langley.

Abstract:
The development of software that depends on floating-point computations is particularly challenging due to the presence of round-off errors in computer arithmetic. These errors accumulate during numerical computations and may significantly affect the evaluation of both arithmetic and Boolean expressions.

Reasoning on floating-point computations is particularly important for safety-critical software where the divergence between the ideal real number computation and its floating-point counterpart can lead to catastrophic consequences.

This talk provides an overview of the different formal methods techniques that have been implemented and integrated to analyze numerical properties of NASA libraries for avionics applications such as geofencing, detect-and-avoid, and aircraft positioning.

Employed techniques include abstract interpretation, theorem proving, SMT solvers, and numerical methods, which have been successfully integrated to improve floating-point programs and to provide formal guarantees of their correctness.

Week Ending Sept. 9, 2022

NASA eClips Releases Three Spanish-Language Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert Videos

To inspire an even larger audience, NASA eClips created and released three Spanish-language Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos featuring Marilé Colón Robles, Jessica Taylor, and Dr. Begoña Vila. These career-connection videos capture a glimpse of each SME’s interests and unique career journeys. These videos are now available in English and Spanish on the NASA eClips website.

Marilé Colón Robles, Project Scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, shares her love for studying clouds and working with people from around the world to collect data about clouds.
Jessica Taylor, Physical Scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, describes her role in developing and bringing NASA Earth Science data to the public, educators, and learners in fun and engaging ways. She shares how her love of meteorology and lightning sparked her interest in becoming a scientist and set her career path.
Begoña Vila, Instrument Systems Engineer for the Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, describes her role in supporting the operations of the Webb telescope. She also shares her love for reading, yoga, and exploring the outdoors. She highlights her interest in both science and art and her belief that humans share the need to explore and continuously learn.

Resources Shared:

To watch Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Project Scientist – Marilé Colón Robles” in Spanish, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc9ZrKWWD7k.

To watch Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Physical Scientist – Jessica Taylor” in Spanish, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxsmH02S4U.

To watch Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Instrument Systems Engineer – Dr. Begoña Vila” in Spanish, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTR_lnrOrk0.

To watch the collection of Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/careerconnection.

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov.

NASA eClips Releases New Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert Video Featuring Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute

NASA eClips has added a new video to its Ask SME (Subject Matter Expert) resource collection. Each video is an opportunity for viewers to “meet” the NASA SMEs featured in NASA eClips educational videos. The Ask SME videos provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their personal interests and career journeys while illustrating real-world connection experiences to help students visualize pathways to STEM careers.

Did you know the effects of space flight and space radiation are similar to growing older? NASA eClips produced and released the newest career connection video, Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert, “Space Biologist – Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute.” In this close-up video, Dr. Cekanaviciute shares how she studies how space radiation affects human brain cells. She also stresses the importance of balancing work with other interests.

Resources Shared:

To watch Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Space Biologist – Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/videosingular/asksme/space-biologist-dr-egle-cekanaviciute.

To watch the collection of Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/careerconnection.

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov.

NIA's E&O Higher Ed Team Presents BIG Idea Challenge at NASA's OSTEM Better Together Conference

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, NIA’s Shelley Spears and Victoria O’Leary presented information about the BIG Idea Challenge during NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) Better Together Conference, held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, VA. Attendees at the BIG Idea Challenge booth during the “World Café” sessions were engaged in collaborative discussions about how to get involved in the 2023 Challenge and how to increase engagement for Higher Education students in NASA competitions, particularly in underserved populations.

The BIG Idea Challenge is a university-level engineering design competition sponsored by NASA through a collaboration between the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development program and the Office of STEM Engagement’s Space Grant Consortium. National Institute of Aerospace manages the challenge, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students from Space Grant-affiliated schools. In 2023, the BIG Idea Challenge theme is “Lunar Forge: Producing Metal Products on the Moon.”

BIG Idea Challenge Website: http://bigidea.nianet.org

Additive Manufacturing Benchmark 2022 Awards and Presentations

Event Date: Aug. 15-18, 2022
Conference: Additive Manufacturing Benchmarks 2022 (AMBench 2022)
Website: https://www.nist.gov/ambench

The Additive Manufacturing (AM) Benchmark Series (AMBench), spearheaded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and supported by OGAs, provides the AM modeling community an opportunity to validate their models against highly controlled, high fidelity, experimental test data (https://www.nist.gov/ambench). This is done by providing necessary input data (in the form of microscopy characterization, coupon geometry, etc.) and posing a challenge to the AM modeling community to provide blind predictions of various quantities of interest relevant to the process/structure/property attributes of AM materials. The challenge problems were released on Apr. 22, 2022, and the blind predictions from the AM modeling community were due on Jul. 15, 2022. Along with researchers at NASA LaRC, NIA researchers Dr. Saikumar R. Yeratapally and Dr. Joshua Pribe participated in three different challenges (identified by challenge numbers CHAL-AMB2022-04-MeTT, CHAL-AMB2022-04-MaTO, and CHAL-AMB2022-01-MS). More information on these challenges is furnished on NIST’s website dedicated to hosting the challenge problems and the data (https://www.nist.gov/ambench/am-bench-2022-measurements-and-challenge-problems).

Dr. Saikumar Yeratapally was the leader of the team (comprising of researchers from NIA and NASA LaRC) that worked on the challenge problem # CHAL-AMB2022-04-MeTT to provide blind predictions on the stress-strain behavior, fracture location, and post-fracture width reduction of a laser powder-bed fusion (L-PBF) produced subcontinuum, mesoscale Inconel-625 coupon. The team received 2nd place awards in two different categories, one for predicting stress-strain response and the other for predicting fracture location and post-fracture width reduction.

Further, Dr. Saikumar Yeratapally and Dr. Joshua Pribe were part of a team (led by Dr. Brodan Richter, a CS in D-307 at NASA LaRC) that worked on the challenge problem # CHAL-AMB2022-01-MS to provide blind predictions on the statistics of a three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of L-PBF produced Inconel-625 material. This team won the 1st place award.

The AMBench organizing committee (comprising researchers from NIST and OGAs) presented the award certificates to the respective team members who attended the AMBench conference in Bethesda, Maryland, from Aug.15 through Aug. 18.

The three award certificates received by researchers from NIA/NASA-LaRC are provided as part of the key activity.

In addition to receiving the awards, NIA researcher Dr. Joshua Pribe gave the following two presentations at the AMBench conference.

Joshua Pribe; Saikumar Yeratapally; Brodan Richter; Patrick Leser; George Weber; Edward Glaessgen, “Process-Structure-Properties Simulations for Predicting Fatigue Indicator Parameters of Additive Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V with Quantified Uncertainty“, AMBench 2022, Aug. 15, 2022, Bethesda, Maryland.

Week Ending Aug. 12, 2022

2023 BIG Idea Challenge – Official Theme Announcement “Lunar Forge: Producing Metal Products on the Moon”

On Aug. 9, 2022, NASA and NIA announced the 2023 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. This university-level design competition invites multi-disciplinary teams of science and engineering students to design, develop, and demonstrate technologies that will enable the production of lunar infrastructure from ISRU-derived metals found on the Moon. Key infrastructure products desired are storage vessels for liquids and gases, extrusions, pipes, power cables, and supporting structures (i.e., roads, landing pads, etc.). Teams are invited to submit proposals focusing on any part of the metal product production pipeline* from prospecting to testing.

*Exclusions: Proposals focusing on drilling, excavation, or transportation will NOT be considered for selection in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. The challenge is not looking for concepts that focus on recycling landed assets into feedstock or metal products.

The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge is open to teams of up to 25 students from universities officially affiliated with their state’s Space Grant Consortium (or partnered with an affiliated school). Up to 10 teams will be selected to build their proposed technology and will be responsible for setting up and executing their own high-fidelity verification testing based on the proposal description. A wide range of award sizes is expected (between $50,000 to $180,000), depending on the scope of the work proposed. Students from finalist teams will be invited to the 2023 BIG Idea Forum, scheduled for Nov. 15-17, 2023.

Notice of Intent Deadline: Sept. 30, 2022; Proposal Deadline: Jan.24, 2023

NASA Announcement: NASA Seeks Student Ideas for Extracting, Forging Metal on the Moon

The BIG Idea Challenge is a sponsored by NASA through a unique collaboration between the Space Technology Mission Directorate (Game Changing Development Program) and the Office of STEM Engagement (Space Grant Consortium) and is managed by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA).

Full competition details, including design constraints and submission guidelines, can also be found on the BIG Idea Challenge Website: http://bigidea.nianet.org.

Week Ending Aug. 5, 2022

NIA-CISE Educators Share NASA eClips and Partner Resources at H.A.T.C.H. Event

On June 25, 2022, Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist) and Betsy McAllister (Educator in Residence) from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) conducted outreach at the Hands Across the City of Hampton (H.A.T.C.H.) event.

The educators introduced 42 underserved and under-represented youth and community members of the historic Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood to NASA eClips and partner resources in preparation for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope ‘First Light’ images. Community members created star life cycle bracelets following the activity “Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope.” As they simulated the activity in each phase of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, they added a colored bead representing the stage to an elastic band. Participants were also introduced to age-appropriate free eClips resources on the NASA eClips website, including the videos Our World “The Sun, A Real Star” and NASA Spotlite “Stars.”

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To access “Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope,” please visit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/education/SeeingStarlightMadScience.8.11.21.pdf.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “The Sun, A Real Star,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-the-sun-a-real-star.
To watch the video NASA Spotlite “Stars,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/spotlite/stars/stars_nasa-spotlite-stars-hcs.

NIA-CISE Team Trains Virginia Educators on ITEEA’s TEEMS and NASA eClips

Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), and Betsy McAllister (Educator in Residence) from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) conducted a Virginia Department of Education training for 14 educators in grades PreK-5 on the use of the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association’s (ITEEA) Technology, Engineering, Environment, Mathematics, and Science (TEEMS) curriculum and aligned NASA eClips resources. The TEEMS modules are part of ITEEA’s Engineering by Design (EbD) curriculum.

During the training, educators were introduced to grade-appropriate TEEMS modules, worked through the modules’ authentic and project-based engineering challenges and NASA eClips activities for engaging and extending learning, and discussed best practices for implementing integrated STEM into formal and nonformal settings.

Educators working with learners in grades 4th-5th were trained on June 28, 2022. Dr. Sharon Bowers led the educators in an icebreaker activity using the NASA eClips Real World: Balloon Aerodynamics Challenge 1 and 2 Educator Guide, where participants were challenged to create a neutrally buoyant balloon. As part of the 5th grade TEEMS module “Our Water, Our World,” participants simulated a drop of water and traveled through different parts of the water cycle. Joan Harper-Neely engaged the educators in learning about water conservation through the NASA eClips Our World: Designing a Shower Clock Educator Guide. As a part of the 4^th grade TEEMS module “The Power of Solar,” educators built an “off the grid” playhouse and learned about the parts of our Sun through the NASA eClips Solar Images Guide Lites and the video, Our World “The Sun, A Real Star.”

Educators working with 2^nd and 3^rd grade learners were trained on June 29, 2022. In addition to completing the NASA eClips Real World: Balloon Aerodynamics Challenge 1 and 2 Educator Guide as an icebreaker, participants constructed a shake table and a structure resistant to high winds as part of the 3^rd grade TEEMS module “Natural Hazards.” They learned about how NASA monitors climate change using the NASA eClips video, Our World “Monitoring the Earth’s Climate with CERES.” Educators worked collaboratively to engineer a seed spreader as part of the 2^nd grade TEEMS module “From Nature to Me,” simulated pollinating a flower, and were introduced to the importance of pollinators through the NASA eClips video Our World “Honeybees.”

PreK-1^stgrade educator training occurred on June 30, 2022. Participants constructed a terrarium as a part of the PreK TEEMS module “Our Living World,” and learned about growth chambers used to grow plants in space through NASA eClips video Our World “Plants in Space.” Educators were introduced to the NASA eClips video Our World “Snowpits” as a way to engage or extend learning with the Kindergarten TEEMS module “A Home for All Seasons.” Educators experienced multiple sound-related activities to familiarize themselves with the 1^st grade TEEMS module “Can You Hear Me?” The NASA Spotlite video “Sound Waves and Media” was shared as a resource to help learners understand how a medium impacts sound travel.

Participants were excited to learn about the variety of NASA eClips resources that can be used to reinforce concepts and practices introduced with the ITEEA’s TEEMS curriculum.

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To access the NASA eClips Real World: Balloon Aerodynamics Challenge 1 and 2 Educator Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/68.
To access the NASA eClips Our World: Designing a Shower Clock Educator Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/teachertoolbox/download/60.
To access the NASA eClips Solar Images Guide Lites, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/81.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “The Sun, A Real Star,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-the-sun-a-real-star.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “Monitoring the Earth’s Climate with CERES,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-monitoring-the-earths-climate-with-ceres.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “Honeybees,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-honeybees.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “Plants in Space,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-plants-in-space.
To watch the NASA eClips video Our World “Snowpits,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-snowpits.

Planning STEM Events Professional Development Sparks Major Community Interest in Hosting NASA-Rich STEM Community Events

Community members in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia gathered at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) on July 14, 2022, to attend the training, “Planning a STEM Event—New Strategies and NASA-Inspired Resources to Engage All Learners.” The 16 members of this group included public school teachers, higher education faculty, retired teachers, youth ministry leaders, and preschool staff, all interested in interactive, STEM-based activities. This workshop was co-developed by STEM Education Specialists and interns from NIA, a group from NASA’s Langley Research Center’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM), and the director of The Coastal Virginia STEM Hub. The participants were able to walk away with valuable strategies for planning STEM events and how their local STEM ecosystem can support their communities. Educators leading the seminar encouraged participants interested in STEM education or growing community engagement to be on the lookout for future seminars and check out the LiveBinder of STEM resources and the NASA eClips website. With the help of NASA resources, the Jefferson Lab, 757 MakerSpace, and Brooks Crossing Innovation Lab, community members now have the tools to provide new STEM opportunities and bring people together.

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To access the NASA eClips “Planning STEM Events” LiveBinder resource, please visit: https://www.livebinders.com/b/3074000.

NASA eClips Celebrates NASA Langley’s 105th Birthday During Day of Sharing —NASA Kids at Work STEM Event

Who doesn’t like a birthday party? NASA employees brought their families to work as part of the NASA Langley 105^th birthday celebration on July 15, 2022. Approximately 360 young and young-at-heart participants filled Langley’s Fitness Center to participate in various STEM activities organized by the Office of STEM Engagement. STEM Education Specialists, interns, and volunteers from the National Institute of Aerospace interacted with families during the four-hour event. Activities included crafting rotocopters to simulate the NASA Ingenuity helicopter and creating starlight bracelets to show the life cycle of a star using different color beads. Introducing fun STEM activities to learners of all ages encourages discussions about careers at NASA and reinforces that STEM is for everyone.

Hampton Community Invited to Participant in Interactive STEM Outreach Event

Libraries do more than just facilitate book check-out. In addition to reading, they are a great place to bring the community together for STEM activities. Over 20 community members participated in The Hampton Public Library’s Summer Reading Program on July 18, 2022, at the Main Branch in Hampton, Va. for over 150 attendees. Participants used their bodies to reenact the life cycle of a star. The kinesthetic activity was led by Dr. Sharon Bowers, Senior STEM Education Specialist from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE). Joined by other STEM education specialists and interns from NIA, NASA partners, and community volunteers managed activity stations during this outreach event. The team organized the activities into two categories: one for children in preschool through second grade and the other for third graders and above. Participants walked away from this event with a deeper understanding of our Sun and other stars in the universe.

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

NIA-CISE Supports the 4th Annual Summer STEM Experience for Middle School Girls

Over 30 middle school girls gathered at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) to meet women leaders in STEM during the 4th Annual Summer STEM Experience on July 23, 2022, hosted by Butterfly Village. The girls learned about the history of NASA’s Langley Research Center and celebrated its 105th birthday with an ice breaker challenge facilitated by Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist from NIA’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE). The group spent the rest of the day engaged with hands-on STEM activities led by Hampton Roads, Va. women with STEM careers.

Secily Thompson, Gloria Hill, and Jennifer Benetti from the forensics team from the Department of Forensics assisted participants as they looked for patterns in DNA and analyzed mystery powders found at a crime scene. Dr. Janice Richardson, Hampton City School’s Science Department Curriculum leader, gave a presentation on the chemistry of salt before showing the girls how to create salt scrubs to take home. A Virginia Children’s Engineering Council member, Michelle Thompson, challenged teams to design a tactile resource to help visually impaired learners count by twos, fives, or tens up to one hundred twenty. Dr. Elle Harris, branding and entrepreneur expert, guided participants in a group collaboration in developing and marketing a sellable product that can positively impact their community. Alexandria Brown, Designer for New Construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, described how she uses 3-D modeling and assimilation to design aircraft carriers for the navy. Participants used critical thinking skills and 3D components to create a new space for an aircraft carrier. Shelita Hall, a Ph.D. student from Norfolk State University, discussed her research and NASA opportunities in advancing medicine in space.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To learn more about Butterfly Village, please visit: https://www.butterflyvillageinc.org/.

Week Ending July 29, 2022

2023 Gateways to Blue Skies: ‘Clean Aviation Energy’ Competition Announced

On July 26, 2022, NIA and NASA officially announced the 2023 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, with its theme: ‘Clean Aviation Energy.’ The competition is a collegiate-level research study challenge in which undergraduate and graduate teams will conceptualize the source-to-flight lifecycle of one potential clean aviation energy source of the 2050s, in terms of feasibility, viability, and environmental impact. The competition is designed to engage as many university students as possible at all levels of education – freshman to graduate – in ARMD’s body of research on sustainable aviation technologies.

Teams of 2-6 people will submit a 5–7-page proposal and video summarizing the proposed concept. In a selection process next March, up to eight teams will be selected as finalists, each earning a $6,000 stipend to facilitate participation in the 2023 Blue Skies Forum which will be held at a NASA Center to be determined. Finalist teams will submit a research paper, create an infographic summarizing the concept, and present in front of NASA and industry experts at the forum. Up to six internships will be available to members of the winning team through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

A Notice of Intent (NOI) is due Oct. 17, 2022, with proposals due Feb. 28, 2023.

The 2023 Blue Skies Competition is sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s University Innovation Project and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.

NASA feature story: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/clean-aviation-energy-is-focus-of-2023-blue-skies-competition

View the all-new Competition Sizzle Reel: Blue Skies Competition Sizzle.

Blue Skies Website: http://blueskies.nianet.org

2023 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition Announced

On July 28, 2022, NIA and NASA officially announced the 2023 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) Competition, a university-level design competition that provides undergraduate and graduate teams the opportunity to develop new concepts that leverage innovation to improve our ability to operate on the moon, Mars, and beyond. This year’s themes range from supporting lunar operations and tourism at the south and north poles, to enabling long-term survival on the surface of Mars. The themes are:

Homesteading Mars
Lunar North Pole Tourism
Lunar Surface Transporter Vehicle
Multi-use Platform at L1

Based on a review of proposals, up to 14 teams will be invited to submit a technical paper and receive a $6,500 stipend to present their projects in person at a design review during the 2023 RASC-AL Forum, held in June in Cocoa Beach, FL. The top two overall winning teams will receive a travel stipend to present their projects at a major aerospace conference.

Interested teams are asked to submit a 7-9-page proposal by March 13, 2023.

RASC-AL is sponsored by the Moon to Mars Architecture Development Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters and by the Space Mission Analysis Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

NASA feature story: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-seeks-business-majors-engineers-for-2023-rasc-al-competition

RASC-AL Website: http://rascal.nianet.org

NIA Postdoctoral Research Scholar Presents Research at 10th ISNVD Annual Meeting

Dr. Kathleen Miller, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented her research, “Synthesis of the Evidence Base Relevant to the Space Radiation Environment: Exploring Vascular and Neurovascular Contributions to Dementia” at the International Society for Neurovascular Diseases (ISNVD) 10th Annual Meeting on Vascular Contributions to Healthy Aging and Dementia. The meeting was held at New York University Grossman School of Medicine in NY, NY, 21-23 July 2022.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes in AIAA Journal

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently published “Boundary-Layer Instabilities over a Cone-Cylinder-Flare Model at Mach 6” in AIAA Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal. The article includes co-authors from North Carolina State University, NASA Langley Research Center, USAFRL and Purdue University.

Paredes, P., Scholten, A., Choudhari, M., Li, F., Benitez, E., Jewell, J. “Boundary-Layer Instabilities over a Cone-Cylinder-Flare Model at Mach 6.” AIAA Journal, 2022. doi: 10.2514/1.J061829

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Presents to NASA Structural and Aeroacoustics Branches

Menachem Rafaelof, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented development work on “Controlled High Fidelity Reproduction (CHFR) of UAM Vehicle Noise” to group members from the structural and aeroacoustics branches at NASA.

Abstract:

There is much expectation for proliferation of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) for passenger transport and delivery of goods. One concern about the operation of these vehicles, either individually or as part of a fleet, is their noise emission and impact on the public. UAM vehicle noise could be annoying, distracting, or intrusive, potentially reducing the quality of sleep, increasing stress, or impacting speech audibility and other factors critical to the quality of life.

This effort conceived a new approach to allow reproduction of any UAM vehicle noise at a desire observer location for its assessment. A critical aspect of CHFR method is the virtual reproduction of high-fidelity noise matching the states of the vehicle and its noise sources throughout the flight.

Week Ending July 15, 2022

NIA Senior Research Engineer Presents Authored Paper at AIAA Aviation Forum

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), authored and co-authored several papers presented at the AIAA Aviation Forum. Dr. Paredes also participated in the Transition Discussion Group Committee meeting and the Laminar Flow Control Discussion Group Committee meeting. The AIAA Aviation Forum was held in person in Chicago, Illinois June 27–July 1, 2022, as well as virtually.

Klauss, C., Pederson, C., Paredes, P., Choudhari, M., Diskin, B. “Stability Analysis of Streaks Induced by Optimized Vortex Generators,” AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, Chicago, June 27–July 1, 2022. AIAA 2022-3249.
Liu, Y., Schuabb, M., Duan, L., Paredes, P., Choudhari, M. “Interaction of a Tunnel-Like Acoustic Disturbance Field with a Blunt Cone Boundary Layer at Mach 8,” AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, Chicago, June 27–July 1, 2022. AIAA 2022-3250.
Paredes, P., Scholten, A., Choudhari, M., Li, F., Price, B., Jewell, J. “Combined Bluntness and Roughness Effects on Cones at Hypersonic Speeds,” AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, Chicago, June 27–July 1, 2022. AIAA 2022-3340.
Scholten, A., Goparaju, H., Gaitonde, D., Paredes, P., Choudhari, M., Li, F. “Linear Disturbance Amplification Over Blunted Flat Plates in High-Speed Flows,” AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, Chicago, June 27–July 1, 2022. AIAA 2022-3471.
Li, F., Choudhari, M., Paredes, P., Scholten, A. “Nonlinear Evolution of Instabilities in a Laminar Separation Bubble at Hypersonic Mach Number,” AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, Chicago, June 27–July 1, 2022. AIAA 2022-3855.

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Collaborates in Completion of RVLT Milestone

Menachem Rafaelof, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), has collaborated in the completion of a Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Gen 3 fleet noise assessment milestone. The objective was to develop a modeling approach to assess the acoustic impact of realistic UAM fleet operations using the FAA’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool’s (AEDT) helicopter mode and the recently developed Gen 3 noise-power-distance (NPD) database. There is broad interest in assessing the impact of noise on the public due to the flight of future urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles. During this effort, first, the noise by two concept vehicles, NASA’s Quadrotor and Lift Plus Cruise, under different operating conditions was predicted. Next, these vehicles were ‘flown’ along a realistic flight trajectory over a given terrain to assess their noise at different observer locations. To do so, this task explored the use of AEDT software for assessing noise by traditional commercial air traffic around airports. This task’s significance has been in identifying the advantages and limitations of AEDT to accurately replicate UAM vehicle noise at different observer locations.

Week Ending July 1, 2022

2022 FAA Challenge Virtual Forum & Winner

The 2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Forum was held June 22-23, 2022. The Challenge was held virtually to ensure the overall safety and well-being of the program team, judging panel, and challenge finalists. The FAA is developing a vision for an info-centric National Airspace System (NAS). Full connectivity will come from infrastructure supporting NAS operations that enable all systems to share data. With all types of devices connected to the Internet (known as the Internet of Things [IoT]) and advances in wireless technology, nearly everything can be connected from nearly any location at any time. Through the Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition, FAA sought innovative ideas from the academic community that take advantage of a future info-centric NAS (including connected aircraft) that benefits NAS users in two categories: General Aviation and Emerging Operations.

Under the two categories, four university teams were selected as finalists in this year’s competition:

General Aviation Category
- Hampton University, “R.I.P.S.: Runway Incursion Prevention System”
- Oklahoma State University, “Squawk ForeFlight”
Emerging Operations Category
- Morgan State University, “A Simulation of a Real-Time Cloud-Based Communication Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) System in Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)”
- Purdue University, “Advanced Air Mobility – A Demand Response Asset”

Hampton University was selected as the General Aviation Category Winner for their project, “R.I.P.S.: Runway Incursion Prevention System,” and was awarded a $10,000 prize. Purdue University was selected as the Emerging Operations Category Winner, receiving the $10,000 prize, as well as the Grand Prize Winner to receive an additional $15,000 prize for their project, “Advanced Air Mobility – A Demand Response Asset.”

In collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Shelley Spears (Program Director), Shannon Verstynen (Program Manager), and Genevieve Ebarle (Program Coordinator) from the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) organized and managed the schedule, logistics, submissions process, evaluation components, virtual forum, and awards ceremony. NIA’s Media and Communications Group, led by Robin Ford and Caleb Stern, managed the livestreaming and remote participation throughout the virtual forum.

In addition to their technical paper submitted on May 8, 2022, each finalist team was evaluated on a 45-minute presentation showcasing their developed concepts and provide a simulated or otherwise functional demonstration of their solution. Day 1 of the Virtual Forum included welcome addresses from the FAA’s Director of the William J. Hughes Technical Center, Shelley Yak, and the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center’s Manager of the Research and Development Management Division, Jon Schleifer. Day 2 consisted of an interactive poster session and several Guest Speakers to not only share their unique experiences and career journeys with the Forum participants, but to also engage and inspire students to pursue a career in the aviation and aerospace industry. 49 individuals (university students, faculty advisors, FAA representatives, and NIA program staff) participated in this event, while 36 university students, faculty advisors, and industry advisors actively participated in the competition on finalist teams throughout the academic year.

To learn more about the FAA Challenge: Smart Airport Student Competition, please visit: http://faachallenge.nianet.org/.

To watch the finalists’ recorded presentations on the FAA Livestream channel, please visit: https://livestream.com/viewnow/faachallenge.

To view the finalists’ technical papers, posters, and presentations, please visit: https://faachallenge.nianet.org/2022-faa-challenge-forum.

NIA Research Scholar and NASA Attend REECH Community Outreach Event

Dr. Kathleen Miller, Research Scholar at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), attended the community outreach Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) event hosted by the Reaching, Educating and Empowering our CHildren (REECH) Foundation. Approximately 40 students, ages 6 to 16, visited the NASA booth where students were able to engage in paper airplane making activities and fly their own airplanes. This event was held at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Virginia, Friday, June 24, 2022.

Week Ending June 24, 2022

NIA Senior Research Scientist Delivers Joint Talk at Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Alwyn Goodloe (NASA) and Dr. Ivan Perez, National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), visited Professor Carl Elks’ research group at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. They gave an extended tutorial on the Copilot Runtime Verification Framework and associated Ogma tool both developed with System-wide Safety funding under TC4. In addition to members of Dr. Elks’ group, faculty members working in the area of robotics also were in attendance. Faculty and graduate students at the University of Virginia (UVa) were also in attendance via Zoom, as were several researchers at the National Institute of Technology (NIST). Professor Elks’ group has started using Copilot for working being conducted under a NASA research award (SWS TC2) and the tutorial introduced Copilot to those wanting to use it on other projects such as a large award from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). During their visit, researchers from NASA, NIA and VCU discussed opportunities for joint research specifically focusing on robot controllers and on automatically generating hardware specifications for monitoring systems.

NIA Senior Research Scientist Publishes New Version of Runtime Monitoring Toolchain

Dr. Ivan Perez, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and technical lead of the Copilot 3 and Ogma projects, published new releases of both systems (respectively, Copilot 3.9 and Ogma 1.0.3). Copilot 3 is a runtime verification framework created by NIA and Galois. Ogma, is a tool to transform structured natural language requirements into Copilot monitors and NASA Core Flight System applications. The new versions implement key features required to obtain NASA’s Class D software classification, which is expected to enable the monitors generated by the tools to be integrated in NASA Class C software. Both tools are currently being used in experimental drone flights carried out by the Safety-Critical Avionics Systems Branch (D320) of NASA Langley Research Center.

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Collaborates in Development of SAP Algorithm

Menachem Rafaelof, Assoc. Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and innovators at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) have developed an algorithm for Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP) of an arbitrary signal in the presence of noise. The SAP algorithm compares the loudness of signal and noise samples at matching time instances to assess audibility versus time. The continued development of this algorithm could allow engineers to suppress how we hear noise relative to sounds of interest. SAP can be implemented either as software or hardware. The algorithm has been tested using subject response data gathered in the Exterior Effects Room (EER) at NASA LaRC.

Week Ending June 3, 2022

NIA-CISE Educators Conduct NASA eClip Outreach with Natasha House C.H.A.M.P.S. Program

On May 5, 2022, Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), and Betsy McAllister (Educator in Residence) from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) conducted outreach with the Natasha House C.H.A.M.P.S. (Character, Honesty, Appreciation, Morals, Perseverance, Service) Program for youth. C.H.A.M.P.S. is a youth character development, mentoring, and creative Arts healing program designed to enrich homeless and at-risk youth with the qualities they need to become successful individuals & entrepreneurs.

The 14 learners from preschool to 10th grade learned about stars by watching the student-produced video Spotlite “Stars.” Participants were introduced to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the work of Dr. Begoña Vila, Instrument Systems Engineer for the JWST and the subject of the soon-to-be-released NASA eClips Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert career video.

Preschool and elementary students moved to simulate the activity in each phase of the life cycle of a Sun-like star and each phase of a massive star. As they acted out each phase, participants collected a colored bead to represent that stage in the star’s life cycle. The beads representing the phases of a Sun-like star were first added to a chenille stem, while beads representing the phases in the life cycle of a massive star were then added to an attached stem. Middle and high school students also learned about star life cycles but created paper beads to represent each phase in the life cycle of a Sun-like star and massive star.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To watch the video Spotlite “Stars,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/spotlite/stars/stars_nasa-spotlite-stars-hcs.
To access Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope, please visit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/education/SeeingStarlightMadScience.8.11.21.pdf.

NIA-CISE Presents Hybrid Professional Development to New York State Master Teachers Using NASA eClipS and Artemis Resources

Dr. Sharon Bowers, Senior STEM Educator from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE), facilitated and presented three coordinated professional learning experiences for New York State Master Teachers (NYSMTP) between March 31, 2022, and May 18, 2022. Two of the three sessions were face-to-face at the State University of New York College at Cortland, NY.

On March 31, 2022, Dr. Bowers joined Marilé Colón Robles (NASA GLOBE Clouds Project Scientist) from NASA’s Langley Research Center for a 90-minute synchronous session introducing the GLOBE Observer Clouds app-based tool to a group of ten Master Teachers.

On April 2, 2022, Dr. Bowers continued working with the Master Teachers exploring integrative STEM design-based instruction through hands-on activities, real-time data, and engineering design challenges, including NASA eClips’s Our World: Designing a Cloud Cover Estimator Educator Guide. The session prepared participants to develop their own integrative design-based lessons. Resources were shared with participants through a LiveBinder.

On May 18, 2022, the trained Master Teachers presented their STEM design-based lessons to their NYSMTP cohort. Master Teachers also participated in an Artemis design challenge from the Artemis Camp Experience resources.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To access the NASA eClips’s Our World Cloud Cover Estimator Educator Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/83.

To access the GLOBE Observer Apps, please visit: https://observer.globe.gov/.

To access the Artemis Camp Experience activities, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem-ed-resources/artemis-camp-experience.html.

2022 Blue Skies Competition Forum @ LaRC

NASA’s 2022 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum was held at Langley Research Center from June 2-3, 2022. Eight finalist university teams presented concepts that evaluated the future aviation landscape and outlined airport exterior designs to accommodate the new technology in an “airports of tomorrow” theme.

Teams were selected in April 2022 via research paper, infographic, and video scoring from a panel of NASA and industry judges. Finalist teams received a $6,000 stipend to participate in the Forum. The winning team earned a NASA Aeronautics internship in the 2022-2023 academic year. Industry judges from the panel also extended an invitation to the winning team to present at the Airports Council International-North America Conference & Exhibition in September in Minneapolis.

2022 Finalist Teams:

Carnegie Mellon University
Manhattan College
Ohio State University
University of California, Irvine
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas, Austin (2 teams)

2022 Blue Skies Forum Prizes were awarded as follows:

First Place (Up to 6 NASA Internships), and invitation to present at the 2022 Airports Council International-North America Conference and Exhibition – Carnegie Mellon University: Sustainability and Connected Autonomy: A New Era for Aviation
Second Place, and Invitation to present to the Las Vegas Airport Strategic Planning Committee – Ohio State University: Project ECOAir
Best Infographic & Presentation, and Invitation to present to the Las Vegas Airport Strategic Planning Committee – University of Texas, Austin: Bluebonnet Skies
Most Intriguing Concept – University of Pennsylvania: Carbon Negative: A Modular Approach to Advancing Green Airport Infrastructure

NASA Feature Story Announcing 2022 Blue Skies Competition Winners: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/winners-announced-in-inaugural-gateways-to-blue-skies-aeronautics-competition

NIA’s Media & Communications Group Livestreamed the Forum. It is available for ongoing viewing at: https://livestream.com/viewnow/blueskies.

The Forum included participation from Clayton Turner, NASA ARMD AA, Bob Pearce, NASA Aeronautics Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program Director John Cavolowsky, and NASA’s University Innovation Project Deputy Director, Mina Cappuccio.

The 2022 Judging Panel included Steven Holz and Nathaniel Blaesser from NASA Langley, Mina Cappuccio and Marcus Johnson from NASA Ames, Azlin Biaggi-Labiosa from NASA Glenn, Cynthia Bixby from NASA Armstrong, John Cavolowsky from NASA HQ, Curtis Hedgepeth from Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran International Airport), and Chris Oswald from Airports Council International-North America. National Institute of Aerospace program staff included Shelley Spears, Stacy Dees, Janice Kurbjun-Miller, Victoria O’Leary, Genevieve Ebarle, and Mary Catherine Bunde.

NIA Senior Research Scientists Receive NASA Group Achievement Award

Drs. Mariano Moscato and Laura Titolo, Senior Research Scientists at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), received a NASA Group Achievement Award for their work on the verification of the CPR algorithm. The group also includes Aaron Dutle (NASA) and Cesar Muñoz (previously NASA).

Week Ending May 27, 2022

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Completes RVLT Annual Review Milestone

Menachem Rafaelof, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), accomplished a Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project annual review milestone with the development of technologies that address noise by Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles. To that end, this effort has examined existing tools and noise metrics and their effectiveness for assessing noise by this new class of vehicles slated for operations in urban or suburban areas. This annual performance review captured extensive work carried out to examine the use of FAA’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) software while relying on noise predictions for two UAM concept vehicles (NASA’s Quadrotor and Lift plus Cruise) to emulate fleet operations.

NIA Senior Research Scientist gives talk at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. Ivan Perez, a senior research scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), gave an invited keynote at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in May 2022. Dr. Perez discussed Copilot 3, a runtime verification framework created by NIA and Galois and originally funded by NASA, which is progressing to comply with NASA’s Class D software requirements, and Ogma, a tool to transform structured natural language requirements from FRET into Copilot monitors. Together, the tools can be used to create hard real-time C applications suitable to run on embedded systems (e.g., NASA Core Flight System-powered drones).

NIA Senior Research Scientist gives talk at the University of Southern California

Dr. Ivan Perez, a senior research scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), gave an invited keynote at the University of Southern California, in May 2022. Dr. Perez discussed Copilot 3, a runtime verification framework created by NIA and Galois and originally funded by NASA that is currently progressing to comply with NASA’s Class D software requirements, and Ogma, a tool to transform structured natural language requirements from FRET into Copilot monitors. Together, the tools can be used to create hard real-time C applications suitable to run on embedded systems (e.g., NASA Core Flight System-powered drones).

NIA Scientist presents paper at International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems

Dr. Ivan Perez, a senior research scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), published the paper I. Perez, A. Mavridou, T. Pressburger, A. Goodloe, D. Giannakopoulou: “Automated Translation of Natural Language Requirements to Runtime Monitors” in the 28th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, April 2022. The paper presents a connection between work done with NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Ames Research Center, which could help generate safety monitors for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles directly from requirements expressed in a restricted, natural language. The work combines the results and capabilities of multiple projects, including Copilot (NIA and Galois Inc), Ogma (NASA Langley Research Center and NIA) and FRET (NASA Ames Research Center).

NIA Scientist publishes NASA Technical Memorandum

Dr. Ivan Perez, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), published the NASA TM I. Perez, A. Mavridou, T. Pressburger, A. Goodloe, D. Giannakopoulou: “Integrating FRET with Copilot: Automated Translation of Natural Language Requirements to Runtime Monitors”, NASA/TM-20220000049, April 2022, an extended version of the paper “Automated Translation of Natural Language Requirements to Runtime Monitors” published at the 28th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS), April 2022. The NASA TM presents a connection between work done with NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Ames Research Center, which could help generate safety monitors for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles directly from requirements expressed in a restricted, natural language. The work combines the results and capabilities of multiple projects, including Copilot (NIA and Galois Inc), Ogma (NASA Langley Research Center and NIA) and FRET (NASA Ames Research Center). Compared to the version presented at TACAS, this NASA TM discusses in detail the experiments ran to validate the approach presented, based on a pre-existing problem set, the Lockheed Martin Cyber-Physical Challenges (LMCPS).

14th International NASA Formal Methods Symposium, co-organized by NIA scientist, hosted at Caltech

The 14th NASA Formal Methods Symposium (NFM 2022) took place May 24-27, 2022, at Caltech, in Pasadena, CA. More than 150 people from academia, industry, and government participated in the event, which took place in virtual format. Researchers and practitioners from institutions such as JPL, NASA, SpaceX, Airbus, as well from universities around the world, contributed to the program. The event, which spanned over four days, included 39 peer-reviewed research papers, seven internationally renowned keynote speakers, and four affiliated tutorials and ranked 2^nd in number of submissions in the history of the event. Dr. Ivan Perez, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), acted as chair, together with Dr. Klaus Havelund (Senior Research Scientist, JPL) and Dr. Jyo Deshmukh (Assistant Professor, University of Southern California).

NIA Senior Research Engineer Presents at NATO STO AVT-346 Spring ’22 Meeting

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, a senior research engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented “Instability Results for Cone-Cylinder-Flare and Cone-Flare Hypersonic Wind-Tunnel Configurations”, at the NATO STO AVT-346: Predicting Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition on Complex Geometries meeting. Co-authors include Fei Li, Meelan Choudhari, and Anton Scholten. The meeting was held May 23-24, 2022.

Paredes, P., Li, F., Choudhari, M., Scholten, A. “Instability Results for Cone-Cylinder-Flare and Cone-Flare Hypersonic Wind-Tunnel Configurations.” NATO STO AVT-346: Predicting Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition on Complex Geometries, May 23-24, 2022, Virtual.

Week Ending May 20, 2022

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Talk at ICCMAE 2022

Dr. Xiaowen Wang, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), gave an invited talk at the Second International Conference on Computational Methods and Applications in Engineering (ICCMAE 2022), during the mini-symposium MA4: Instability, Transition and Turbulence in Fluids: Fundamentals to Applications. Dr. Wang’s talk, “Transition Control of Hypersonic Boundary Layers Using Ultrasonically Absorptive Porous Coatings,” was given on May 7, 2022.

Abstract:
The design of hypersonic vehicles is constrained by the considerable drag and heat transfer. These constraints are signiﬁcantly enhanced as the boundary-layer transition happens. Strategies to maintain laminar boundary layers or delay transition can dramatically reduce drag and surface heating. For small amplitude disturbance, the transition of a boundary layer over a smooth surface consists of three stages: receptivity, modal growth of unstable waves, and breakdown to turbulence. According to the three-stage transition, modal growth of unstable boundary-layer waves is critical to transition control. In the past two decades, the stabilizing eﬀect of ultrasonically absorptive porous coatings on hypersonic boundary layers has been demonstrated by theoretical analyses, experiments, and numerical simulations. In this work, a review of the existing literature on the topic is firstly reported. It is noticed that research on stabilization efficiency of porous coating is limited and almost all previous work considers either felt-metal porous coating or regular porous coating. Here, the stabilities of two hypersonic boundary layers are investigated with a combination of linear stability theory and numerical simulation, which shows the physics of transition control using porous coating. Three approaches are then proposed for the application of porous coating to achieve high stabilization efficiency.

More information is online at: https://www.iccmae.math.msstate.edu.

Week Ending May 13, 2022

NASA eClips Exhibits at the Virtual 2022 Virginia Children’s Engineering Convention

Over 300 elementary school educators attending the virtual Virginia Children’s Engineering Convention (VCEC) on Feb. 8-10, 2022, participated in engineering and technology-based activities designed to develop technological awareness and skills. The NASA eClips Team interacted with attendees visiting their virtual booth through a scavenger hunt, trivia game, and the video Four Ways to Engage Learners During Engineers Week. Educators had the opportunity to sign up to pilot test the redesigned NASA eClips Engineering Design packets.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To access the Revised Draft Elementary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tChjUzksa3Z8xgTj8mGccdxXrFoQSrbC/view?usp=sharing.

To access the Revised Draft Secondary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BTjZ_k3ACphcvfu6nFJ2b6udsNprvw_P/view?usp=sharing.

To learn more about the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge and to view the resources available to support the Challenge, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge.

NIA-CISE Engages Teachers and Students in Piloting Newly Revised NASA eClips Engineering Design Packets

Educators from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) recruited teachers from across the country to field test and provide feedback on the newly revised NASA eClips Engineering Design Packets (EDP). The “Elementary Engineering Design Packet” (students in grades 3-5) and “Secondary Engineering Design Packet” (students in grades 6-12) introduce students to a formal design process. The open-ended nature of the packets enables them to be applied to any design project and used with any curriculum, whether a formal or nonformal setting. In addition, packets are accompanied by an Engineering Design Packet Implementation Guide and a rubric that can assist teachers with implementation and evaluation.

On March 1, 2022, and April 18, 2022, the NIA-CISE Education Team hosted webinars where they introduced 10 educators to the Engineering Design Packets and the process that will be used to provide feedback on the packets. A recording of the presentation and supporting resources were provided to 21 educators who were unable to attend the webinar.

Pilot educators will customize the EDP with a design challenge of their choosing. Customized packets, along with a record of the time needed to become familiar with the Implementation Guide and time needed for students to work through the packet, will be shared with the NASA eClips’ external evaluator, Dr. Bradford Davey of Technology for Learning Consortium, Inc. In addition, pilot teachers will also complete a comprehensive survey of their experience and share anecdotal data from students. The valuable feedback provided by educators will be used to improve the packets so they will be ready for release for the 2022-2023 school year.

The Education Team from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) includes Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), and Betsy McAllister (NIA Educator in Residence).

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To access the Revised Draft Elementary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tChjUzksa3Z8xgTj8mGccdxXrFoQSrbC/view?usp=sharing.

To access the Revised Draft Secondary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BTjZ_k3ACphcvfu6nFJ2b6udsNprvw_P/view?usp=sharing.

To access the Draft Engineering Design Packet Implementation Guide, please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w1ijdi570PBiYa5V1LrocWBjXJizhz0hyk8bAWiFN10/edit?usp=sharing.

NASA eClips Participates in Yorktown Elementary Annual STEM Night

NASA eClips Educators participated in Yorktown Elementary School’s Annual STEM Night on April 19, 2022, engaging students and their families in actively building their understanding of the life cycle of a Sun-like star.

Over 200 families moved through the stages in the life cycle of a Sun-like star. Participants swirled to simulate the gas and dust of a star-forming nebula, compressed themselves to represent a protostar, pretended to emit heat as a main sequence star, expanded themselves to represent a cooling red giant, expanded themselves further to illustrate a planetary nebula, before finally collapsing into a white dwarf. At each stage, students collected a colored bead that represented the stage. The beads were added to a chenille stem to create a life cycle bracelet of a Sun-like star.

Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator) and Betsy McAllister (NIA Educator in Residence) at the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) shared the varied and highly adaptable educational resources found on the NASA eClips website, including Our World “The Sun, A Real Star” and Launchpad “Life Cycle of a Star.”

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To watch Our World “The Sun, A Real Star,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworld/our-world-the-sun-a-real-star.

To access Launchpad “Life Cycle of a Star,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/launchpad/launchpad-life-cycle-of-a-star.

To access Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope, please visit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/education/SeeingStarlightMadScience.8.11.21.pdf.

NIA-CISE Education Team Presents ITEEA STEMinar

The National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) Education Team presented a STEMinar entitled “5E, 6E, 7E Lesson Models …What’s the Big Deal About E’s?” for the International Technology and Engineering Educator’s Association (ITEEA) on April 28, 2022.

The 17 STEMinar participants compared different instructional models, including the 3E model, 5E model (Biological Science Curriculum Study), 6E model (ITEEA), 7E model (Arthur Eisenkraft) and the expanded 9E model (Prabhdeep Kaur and Anjali Gakhar), and identified how the models lend themselves to integrative STEM education.

The NIA-CISE Education Team introduced NASA eClips™ resources to support STEM instruction and engagement in both formal and nonformal settings. The eClips’ Black Boxes, currently under revision, were demonstrated as a tool to help students understand the difference between the engineering design process and scientific inquiry.

Participants also had the chance to review the newly redesigned Elementary Engineering Design Packet (students in grades 3-5) and Secondary Engineering Design Packet (students in grades 6-12) that introduce students to a formal design process. The open-ended nature of the packets enables them to be applied to any design project and used with any curriculum, whether a formal or nonformal setting, including the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge. The packets are accompanied by an Engineering Design Packet Implementation Guide and a rubric that can assist teachers with implementation and evaluation.

Finally, participants were introduced to carefully curated resources organized on an engineering page of the NASA eClips website and a Livebinder.

The Education Team from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) include Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), and Betsy McAllister (NIA Educator in Residence).

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To access the Revised Draft Elementary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tChjUzksa3Z8xgTj8mGccdxXrFoQSrbC/view?usp=sharing.

To access the Revised Draft Secondary Engineering Design Packet, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BTjZ_k3ACphcvfu6nFJ2b6udsNprvw_P/view?usp=sharing.

To access the Draft Engineering Design Packet Implementation Guide, please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w1ijdi570PBiYa5V1LrocWBjXJizhz0hyk8bAWiFN10/edit?usp=sharing.

To learn more about the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge and to view the resources available to support the Challenge, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge.

To view resources supporting this STEMinar, please visit: https://www.livebinders.com/b/3011277.

NIA-CISE Presents NASA eClips at Cooper Elementary Magnet School’s Career Day

National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) Educator Betsy McAllister discussed NASA careers with 147 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade students at William Cooper Elementary Magnet School’s Career Day on April 29, 2022.

Learners were introduced to the career of astrophysicist and a NASA astrophysicist through the NASA eClips Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Research Astrophysicist – Dr. Nicholeen Viall.” After watching the video, students were able to describe the work of astrophysicists. Students then assumed the role of astrophysicists in learning about the importance of the Sun. They acted out the stages in the life cycle of a Sun-like star and constructed a bracelet where a different colored bead represented a specific stage in the life cycle. Finally, students were introduced to the James Webb Space Telescope and how this engineering marvel will enable scientists and the public to learn more about the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and the formation of planetary systems around stars.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To view the collection of Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/careerconnection.

To watch Launchpad “Life Cycle of a Star,” please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/launchpad/launchpad-life-cycle-of-a-star.

To learn more about Seeing Starlight, please visit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/education/SeeingStarlightMadScience.8.11.21.pdf.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes in AIAA Journal 2022

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently published “Linear Instabilities over Ogive-Cylinder Models at Mach 6” in AIAA Journal Volume 60. Co-authors include Anton Scholten (NCSU), J. Luke Hill (AFIT), Matthew Borg (AFRL), Joseph S. Jewell (Purdue), and Meelan Choudhari (NASA LaRC). The article was made publicly available 27 April 2022.

https://doi.org/10.2514/1.J061611

Abstract:

Computational investigations of a tangent ogive-cylinder geometry with varying forebodies at zero degrees angle of attack are presented. The model geometry and conditions are selected to match experiments conducted in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Mach 6 Ludwieg Tube. Specifically, five forebodies of interest consisting of sharp and blunt ogives of 4 and 2 caliber and a hemispherical shape are studied at a freestream unit Reynolds number of 7.01×106m−17.01×106 m−1. Boundary-layer-edge properties and wall-normal profiles of velocity and temperature are compared across streamwise locations past the ogive-cylinder junction. Modal stability analysis is used to characterize the most amplified frequencies corresponding to Mack’s first and second modes and those are found to agree with experimental results for the sharp forebodies. The entropy layer induced by blunt forebodies envelopes the boundary layer and stabilizes modal disturbances. Nonmodal analysis revealed a broadband set of disturbances present for the blunter forebodies, in agreement with experimental observations. Flow perturbation contours of most amplified planar and oblique disturbances are shown to qualitatively match wind tunnel schlieren images, with a switch from rope-like to elongated structures, i.e., from high-frequency Mack’s second modes to low-frequency Mack’s first modes, as the forebody angle for the sharp tip is increased, and from boundary-layer to entropy-layer disturbances as the bluntness is increased.

Directorate: E4 – Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate
Key POCs: E402 – Dale Arney; E403 – Michael Patterson, Nick Borer
Event Date: 5/4-5/5/22

Grand Challenge Reviews

Langley Professor Dr. Dimitri Mavris of the Georgia Tech Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory hosted a hybrid event last week in which graduate student teams presented the results of their two-semester Grand Challenge projects. Two of the projects were conducted under the auspices of the Langley Professor Program.

Analysis of Electrified Regional Operations (AERO)

Grand Challenge Abstract:

This Grand Challenge investigated how and where to operate an all-electric aircraft fleet subject to real-world constraints. To accomplish this goal, the team analyzed the main factors that realistically affect electric aircraft operations to determine their impact on the fleet utilization and overall operator profit.

While significant demand exists for regional operations, current commuter aircraft fleets are aging and are plagued with high operating and maintenance costs and high pollution rates. To revitalize this market segment and address current shortcomings, a paradigm shift in commuter aircraft is necessary, such as the use of an all-electric aircraft fleet, to satisfy demand in a given commuter region.

However, the operation of such an all-electric aircraft fleet comes with unique logistical and operational challenges, mainly due to range and turnaround time constraints. A review of the influential factors impacting such constraints identified three main fields: FAA reserve and alternate airport regulations, wind effects, and routing inefficiencies. Much of the variation and severity of these constraints depend on the weather conditions on a given day. Using the Northeast Corridor, the Hawaiian Islands, and the California Coast as case studies for all-electric fleet operation, the team developed an algorithm that compiles a distribution of energy required to fly any given route subject to randomly sampled historical weather conditions via a Monte Carlo simulation. The energy required distribution data is used to identify feasibility of current regional airline schedules, and if schedules are found infeasible for direct substitution of electric aircraft, then the team leverages an off-the-shelf scheduling optimizer to modify current schedules to produce feasible ones.

The team developed an interactive environment to allow a user to identify the effect of weather conditions and battery technology on individual routes and aircraft as well as fleet-level metrics such as utilization, average load factor, and overall airline profit. Further, these statistics can be filtered by location and season, allowing the user to compare the three case study locations’ disposition to electric regional air operations. The team developed a methodology for injecting real-world variability into electric aircraft operational studies.

LaRC POCs:
E403 – Michael Patterson, Nick Borer
Technical Advisor:
Dr. Cédric Justin, Research Engineer II, Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory
Graduate Student Team Members:
Samuel Crawford, Martin Delage, Quentin Derville, Michael Fredricks, Daniel Nwachukwu

Space Logistics and Mobility (SLAM)

Grand Challenge Abstract:

In the coming decades, the space industry will continue to rapidly grow and expand into cislunar space, as the barriers to entry are reduced, and nations continue to make efforts to expand beyond Earth.

Developments from the private sector have led to a dramatic reduction in launch costs, and an entire industry has been built around telecommunications and defense satellites. However, the lack of a space logistics network to support these assets drives up costs, as each individual mission is considered independently. For example, resupply missions will be extremely expensive if launch vehicles are required to propel supplies all the way to the surface of the moon, as upper stages are expendable. Additionally, a distributed series of supplies, fuel, and parts is needed for emergencies.

The Space Logistics and Mobility Grand Challenge focused on addressing the space infrastructure problem by developing a framework for evaluating alternative space infrastructure architectures. Building such an infrastructure is expected to be a major investment with high initial costs and major consequences for other space systems, motivating the need to design space infrastructure that will best meet multiple objectives, including initial cost, operations cost, and robustness. There is no existing precedent for such a space infrastructure network, which necessitates the development of a tool that can determine whether a given infrastructure concept reduces cost, and if so, in what quantity or location, where applicable.

2035 was selected as part of the study scoping, with a literature search being performed to compile concepts for space assets that will populate cislunar space during that time, including attributes such as

their consumption rates. Proposals for space logistics concepts were studied, and the three most viable concepts to construct and launch within the next 15 years were selected: supply depots, space tugs, and lunar in-situ resource utilization.

A Discrete Event Simulation (DES) was built around these infrastructure concepts. The DES was then coupled with a genetic algorithm to determine the solution to modified versions of traditional terrestrial supply chain problems: location-allocation, which focuses on facility quantity and location; location-inventory, which focuses on ordering policies, and location-routing, which focuses on optimal fleet sizes and routes.

LaRC POC:
E402 – Dale Arney
Technical Advisor:
Dr. Bradford Robertson, Research Engineer II, Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory
Graduate Student Team Members:
Anish Vegesna, Arnaud Ballande, Jacob Zhong, Jasrayman Thind, Zayn Roohi

Week Ending March 25, 2022

NIA Research Fellow Publishes NASA Technical Memorandum

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), and Nelson V. De Carvalho (NASA LaRC), published “A Benchmark Example for Delamination Propagation Predictions Based on the Calibrated End-Loaded Split Specimen,” NASA-TM-20220002098. A benchmark example based on the Calibrated End-Loaded Split (C-ELS) specimen was developed and used to assess the performance of recently developed delamination propagation capabilities in the Abaqus/Standard finite element code. The C-ELS specimen has the advantage of a longer region of stable delamination propagation compared to the existing mode II benchmark case. The new benchmark example may therefore provide a better assessment tool by enabling more stable crack growth in regions further away from the boundary conditions or load application. Detailed results from three-dimensional analyses with aligned and misaligned meshes and two levels of mesh refinement are provided for several permutations of numerical input parameters. In general, good agreement can be achieved between the results obtained from the quasi-static propagation analysis and the benchmark analysis. However, particular non-default settings are found to be most reliable, accurate, and numerically efficient. Use of the benchmark case to assess the continuous improvements in one finite element code illustrates the value of establishing benchmark solutions.

Week Ending March 18, 2022

2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition Finalist Teams Selected

NASA eClips Resources Featured in Earth to Sky Webinar: NASA Spotlites in Environmental Education Young Learners as Science Communicators

Geneviève de Messières, lead for the Earth to Sky team, invited NASA eClips’ educators to join a webinar and share NASA eClips’ collaboration with Guana Tolomato Matanzas (GTM) National Estuarine Research Reserve. Earth to Sky (ETS) is a partnership between NASA, the National Parks Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last summer, Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist for the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), and Josie Spearman, GTM Education Coordinator, created a program where students honed their critical thinking skills and developed technological and science literacy through the process of producing NASA Spotlite videos. By bringing together NASA Spotlites’ tools for student-produced videos that challenge science misconceptions, and the place-based environmental stories unique to the GTM Research Reserve, campers were immersed in a real-world challenge of communicating science to the general public. The webinar was designed to show science centers, parks, refuges, and other conserved sites digital tools to use in their summer camps and multiday group engagements. Tips and strategies were shared with 10 attendees for planning, training staff, and implementing the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge.

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips and the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To learn more about Earth to Sky, please visit https://earthtosky.org/.

NASA eClips Education Team Shares Resources in 3-D Thursday Webinar for Rural Educators

The NASA eClips Education Team presented at the 3-D Thursdays NASA Series for K-12 Rural Educators webinar held on March 3, 2022, to 21 educators from across the nation. The webinar series is hosted by Rachel Arens, Associate Researcher at NAU PLANETS (Northern Arizona University’s Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, and Science) and Michael Guarraia (Albert Einstein Distinguished Fellow at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate). The monthly Three-Dimensional Thursdays webinar series aims to enhance rural educators’ access to NASA resources, networking, and professional development. While focused on rural educators, the webinar series is open to all educators.

The NASA eClips Education Team introduced participants to the suite of resources that support standards-based instruction by increasing STEM literacy in both formal and nonformal settings. Participants explored the resources in greater depth through a series of scavenger hunts in the NASA eClips website. They identified the short length of NASA eClips videos and the ability to download them easily and on-demand as reasons they are ideal resources for rural areas where bandwidth may be a limiting factor.

NASA eClips videos consist of Our World, Real World, Launchpad and Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos, as well as student-produced Spotlite videos. The audience for NASA Our World videos are created for students in grades 3-5 to help them understand the difference between science (the natural world) and engineering (the designed world). Real World segments, designed for students in grades 6-8, connect classroom mathematics to 21st-century careers and innovations. NASA Launchpad videos focus on NASA innovations and technologies that will take us into the future. “Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert (SME)” videos gives the audience a chance to “meet” NASA SMEs and learn about their personal interests and career journeys, expanding student awareness of STEM careers. Participants identified the use of diverse hosts and SMEs as reasons they will use the eClips to introduce and engage audiences, build conceptual understanding, and extend learning with audiences.

Participants also took a deeper dive to learn more about NASA eClips Guides. They expressed that both the Educator Guides, which provide ways to use eClips videos effectively, and the shorter Guide Lites will excite and engage learners in both formal and nonformal settings. Guide Lites focus on a single activity from an Educator Guide. Participants identified that VALUE (Varied & Accessible Learning Resources for Universal Engagement) Bundles give students choices in how they learn about a topic. The carefully curated NASA eClips and partner resources within a VALUE Bundle provide a cohesive and intriguing set of materials that meets the needs of a wide variety of learners. Participants believed the newly redesigned Engineering Design Packets will be a valuable tool their learners could use with any design challenge.

The audience was also introduced to the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge, in which student teams write an engaging script and produce a 90-120 second Spotlite video that addresses a science misconception. The detailed supporting materials and intuitive nature of the challenge were identified as reasons participants expressed their plan to use the resource with learners in the future.

The NASA eClips Education Team from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) consists of Dr. Sharon Bowers (Senior STEM Educator), Joan Harper-Neely (STEM Education Specialist), and Betsy McAllister (Educator in Residence).

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

Our World videos: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/ourworldReal World videos: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/realworld
Launchpad videos: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/launchpad
Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/careerconnection
Guides: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/guides
VALUE Bundles: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/valuebundle
NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge

NASA eClips Highlights NASA Spotlite Design Challenge at 2022 ITEEA Conference

Over 100 teachers visited the NASA eClips exhibit table at the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) Conference’s Showcase in Orlando, FL, on March 10, 2022. Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist at the National Institute of Aerospace and member of the NASA eClips team, challenged attendees to organize the steps for the engineering design process to produce a NASA Spotlite video. ITEEA educators can guide their learners to become content creators as they produce videos to address science misconceptions and demonstrate to others how to make a claim and gather evidence before reasoning why the evidence supports the claim.

Resources Shared:
To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To learn more about the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge.

Week Ending March 11, 2022

2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition Finalist Teams Selected

On Feb. 24, 2022, the 2022 FAA Challenge Steering Committee met virtually from 1–3 p.m. ET to evaluate and discuss the merits of seven Project Plan Proposal submissions for the 2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition. This year, four teams were selected to advance to the 2022 FAA Challenge Forum in New Jersey on June 22 and 23 2022.

The four teams selected, by theme, to advance are:

General Aviation:

Hampton University (Hampton, Virginia)
- Project Title: “R.I.P.S.: Runway Incursion Prevention System”
- Faculty Advisor: Prof. Andrew Smith
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, Oklahoma)
- Project Title: “Squawk ForeFlight”
- Faculty Advisor: Dr. Matt Vance

Emerging Operations:

Morgan State University (Baltimore, Maryland)
- Project Title: “A Simulation of a Real-Time Cloud-Based Communication Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) System in Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)”
- Faculty Advisors: Dr. Oludare Owolabi, Dr. Kofi Nyarko, Dr. Neda Bazyar Shourabi
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
- - Project Title: “Advanced Air Mobility as an Electric Grid Demand Response Asset: A System-of-Systems Approach for Decarbonization and Electric Grid Services”
  - Faculty Advisors: Dr. Daniel DeLaurentis, Dr. Shaoshuai Mou

Each team is required to submit a 15–20-page Technical Paper describing their concept by May 8, 2022 and will present and/or demonstrate their concepts to an audience of FAA subject matter experts during the June 22-23 Forum. The team with best technical paper and oral presentation score in the theme categories of General Aviation and Emerging Operations will be awarded a $10,000 finalist award. The two finalist teams will compete for top honors as the overall winner and will receive an additional $15,000 award.

To learn more about the FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition, please visit: http://faachallenge.nianet.org/.

Week Ending Feb. 11, 2022

CHROME Club Invites NASA eClips to Engage Middle School Students in STEM Activity

Alexis Tharpe, a middle school teacher from Hampton, VA, invited the NASA eClips team to engage 25 girls in a STEM activity during a CHROME Club meeting on Feb. 24, 2022. Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROME) provides teachers of K-12 students opportunities to increase opportunities and awareness in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist from the National Institute of Aerospace ‘s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE), introduced the girls to an astrophysicist by sharing Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Dr. Nicholeen Viall – Astrophysicist.” Several girls said they could relate to Dr. Nicholeen Viall because they also like dancing and are curious about the sun, stars, or space. Working in teams, CHROME club members created life cycles of star bracelets to learn how sun-like stars and massive stars from Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope. The student-produced video, NASA Spotlite “Stars,” was shared to inspire the girls to use their voices to create science content for others and encourage peers to do their own science investigations.

Resources Shared:

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.

To watch Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert “Dr. Nicholeen Viall – Astrophysicist,” please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/videosingular/asksme/research-astrophysicist-dr-nicholeen-viall.

To watch NASA Spotlite “Stars,” please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/spotlite/stars/stars_nasa-spotlite-stars-hcs.

To view Seeing Starlight with the James Webb Space Telescope, please visit https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/education/SeeingStarlightMadScience.8.11.21.pdf.

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents Demo and Gives Talk on Detect and Avoid In The Cockpit (DANTi) at NASA Langley

Dr. Paolo Masci, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented a demonstration on Detect and Avoid (DAA) in the Cockpit (DANTi) during the ATM-X UAM SP Meeting at NASA Langley. Dr. Masci also presented a talk on the subject at the NASA UAM Tech Talk, along with Maria Consiglio (NASA Langley) and Victor Carreño (Compass Engineering Corporation).

Mid-air collision risk continues to be a concern for manned aircraft operations, especially near busy non-towered airports. The use of DAA technologies and standards developed for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), either alone or in combination with other collision avoidance technologies, may be useful in mitigating this collision risk for manned aircraft. This presentation described DANTi, the concept of use and software prototype. In addition, fast time evaluations of the impact of assistive DAA technology, such as DANTi, was also discussed including the reduction of conflict severity and mid-air collisions.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminar at California Institute of Technology

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently gave an invited talk, “Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition over a Blunt Cone” at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) Colloquium Winter Series. The talk was held March 4, 2022.

Week Ending Feb. 25, 2022

2022 BIG Idea Challenge Team Finalists Selected

The 2022 BIG Idea Challenge Steering Committee and NIA Program Staff (Shelley Spears, Stacy Dees, Victoria O’Leary and Janice Kurbjun Miller) met virtually from Feb. 15-17, 2022 for a panel review of proposals submitted for the 2022 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. They deliberated the merits of 34 university-submitted proposals for a wide range of extreme terrain mobility solutions. Gary Meyering, Drew Hope, Niki Werkheiser, and Stephanie Yeldell of STMD also attended the deliberation session, providing initial remarks to the judges about the types of concepts that would be beneficial to investigate in support of planned missions.

Seven university teams were selected to receive funding to move forward with designs. Funding comes from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game-Changing Development Program and from the Space Grant Consortium Project.

Selected teams include:

Arizona State University
- Title: CHARLOTTE – Crater Hydrogen And Regolith Laboratory for Observation on Technical Terrain Environments
- Faculty Advisors: Dr. James Bell, Dr. James Rice, Prof. Tyler Smith
California Institute of Technology
- Title: Lunar Architecture for Tree Traversal In-service-of Cabled Exploration
- Faculty Advisors: Soon-Jo Chung, Dr. Issa Nesnas, Dr. Charles Elachi, Dr. Jason Kastner, Dr. Steve Wall, Dr. Michael Mello
Florida State University and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering)
- Title: Extreme Terrain Quadruped (ET-Quad)
- Faculty Advisors: Jonathan Clark, Dr. Christian Hubicki, Dr. Camilo Ordonez, Dr. Shayne McConomy, Dr. Juan Ordonez
Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Boston Dynamics, MassRobotics, Robots5
- Title: Walking Oligomeric Robotic Mobility System (WORMS)
- Faculty Advisors: Jeffrey Hoffman, Dr. David Trumper, Dr. Olivier de Weck
Northeastern University
- Title: COBRA: Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator
- Faculty Advisor: Dr. Alireza Ramezani
University of Connecticut
- Title: Morphing Tank-to-Leg Modality for Exploratory Lunar Vehicles
- Faculty Advisors: Dr. Fiona Leek, Dr. Ramesh Malla
University of Maryland
- Title: TRAVELS – Terrapin Rover Allows Versatile Exploration of the Lunar Surface
- Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Akin

NASA’s Langley Research Center published a feature story on Feb. 24, 2022 announcing the awardees: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/university-teams-take-off-the-training-wheels-to-develop-alternative-rovers.

Teams were encouraged to only ask for the amount of funding needed to complete their project as proposed, up to a maximum of $180,000. Nearly $1.2M was awarded between the finalist teams. Awardees will present the results of their testing to the BIG Idea Judges via an in-person presentation in Nov. 2022.

Full competition details, information on judges, and a full detailed timeline can also be found on the BIG Idea Challenge Website: http://bigidea.nianet.org/.

Week Ending Feb. 18, 2022

NIA-CISE Presents NASA eClips at the 2022 Space Exploration Educators Conference

Dr. Sharon Bowers, Senior STEM Educator at the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE), presented two sessions at the 2022 Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC) in Houston, Texas.

On Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, Dr. Bowers joined Dr. Aleida Higginson (Research Astrophysicist), Dr. Michael Kirk (Research Scientist), and Carolyn Ng (Education Specialist) from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Heliophysics Division, and Dr. “Trae” Winter (Solar Astrophysicist) and MaryKay Severino (Education Director) from the Advanced Research Inclusion and STEAM Accessibility (ARISA) Lab to present NASA Science: Getting Ready for the Next Solar Eclipse.

The purpose of the session was to engage the 29 face-to-face and 35 virtual participants in exploring the Sun-Earth connection through hands-on activities, real-time data, and “live” interactions. The session prepared participants to maximize the excitement and learning for the upcoming solar eclipses visible in the United States (annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, and total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024). Participants introduced themselves and interacted with each other through Padlet and learned about NASA resources through a Solar Eclipse Scavenger Hunt. Resources were shared with participants through a Solar Eclipse LiveBinder. Participants created solar images (NASA eClips’s Interactive Lesson: Solar Images Guide Lite) and used filters of various colors to test how wavelength affects images being viewed (NASA’s Our World: Rose Colored Glasses – A New Camera for Hubble Educator Guide and NASA eClips’s Rose Colored Glasses Guide Lite).

The presentation was one of three SEEC proposals developed by NASA Science Activation (SciAct) teams. SciAct, is a network of teams across the nation that connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond.

On Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, Dr. Bowers joined NASA eClips Technical Advisory Board Member and Accessibility and Inclusion Specialist at Space Center Houston, Stephanie McMahon, to present Science and Engineering – Similar, but Different: Tools and Resources to Grow Young Scientists and Engineers.

Fifty-two participants joined Bowers and McMahon in a hands-on exploration of the similarities and differences between inquiry and the Engineering Design Process (EDP). To frame science inquiry, participants were introduced to the 2021 NASA eClips production Real World “The Nature of Science.” Participants explored the engineering design process using the SCAMPER strategy (substitute, combine, adapt, magnify/minify, put to another use, eliminate, reverse/rearrange) to improve a shower clock design (adapted from NASA’s Our World: Designing a Shower Clock Educator Guide).

The session expanded participant knowledge of ways to engage students to think and work like scientists and engineers. Participants were introduced to a wide variety of NASA Citizen Science and Engineering Design resources through a LiveBinder.

Dr. Bowers also supported the SciAct presentations NASA Science: Hands-On Exploration of Our Solar System on Feb. 3, 2022, and NASA Science: Exploring NASA Science Missions on Feb. 4, 2022.

Resources Shared:

To view the NASA Science: Getting Ready for the Next Solar Eclipse presentation, please visit: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Z0RGZu_Obtat8F2AD9uhf3XCCoXlSG6K/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114807651471085624492&rtpof=true&sd=true.

To view the Science and Engineering – Similar, but Different: Tools and Resources to Grow Young Scientists and Engineers presentation, please visit: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AA8r7C7PqiJCAQ3w8ueywEnpreZ4rt2Z/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114807651471085624492&rtpof=true&sd=true.

To access the Solar Eclipse Scavenger Hunt, please visit: https://www.livebinders.com/b/2963835.

To access the Solar Eclipse LiveBinder, please visit: https://www.livebinders.com/b/2963795.

To view the NASA eClips’s Interactive Lesson: Solar Images Guide Lite, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/81.

To access the LiveBinder of NASA Citizen Science and Engineering Design resources, please visit: https://www.livebinders.com/b/2961740.

To watch Real World “The Nature of Science,” please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/realworld/real-world-the-nature-of-science.

To access NASA’s Our World: Designing a Shower Clock Educator Guide, please visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/download/60.

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes Co-Authored Article in Journal of Fluid Mechanics

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently co-authored the published article “Characterization of instability mechanisms on sharp and blunt slender cones at Mach 6.” Authors include Richard Kennedy (BAE Systems), Joseph Jewell (Purdue University), and Stuart Laurence (UMD). The article will be included in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Volume 936, April 10, 2022.

doi:10.1017/jfm.2022.39

Week Ending Feb. 11, 2022

2022 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition Question and Answer Session #2

A second Question and Answer Session was hosted by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and NASA program sponsors for teams interested in participating in the 2022 Blue Skies Competition on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022.

Twenty-seven (27) teams who submitted NOIs and nearly 2,500 additional potential participants received invitations to participate in the real-time Q&A session. Questions were fielded by program sponsor Steven Holz of NASA Aeronautics at Langley Research Center, with support from program sponsors Koushik Datta and Mina Cappuccio of NASA Aeronautics at Ames Research Center. Together, Janice Kurbjun Miller and Stacy Dees of the NIA Program Team and the Blue Skies Program Sponsors provided technical and programmatic competition background for interested teams.

The all-new 2022 Blue Skies competition asks teams of 2-6 university students to design a 2050s airport (focusing on the exterior of the airport) that can support the climate friendly planes and aviation markets of the future. Teams will submit proposals in March 2022, with up to 8 teams selected as finalists to present at NASA’s Langley Research Center in June 2022.

An updated summary document and audio recording of the Q&A Session will be posted on the Blue Skies FAQs website: http://blueskies.nianet.org/faq/ by mid-Feb.

NIA Research Scholar Presents at NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop

Dr. Kathleen Miller, Research Scholar at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently presented a poster at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, entitled, “A Proposed Mode of Action Pathway for Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation Induced Cerebrovascular Disease and Consequent Dementia”. Co-authors include K. L. Mi (Brown University), R. B. Norman (NASA Langley), Z. S. Patel (KBR Inc.), and J. L. Huff (NASA Langley). The workshop was held virtually Feb. 7-10, 2022.

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Files Patent for Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP)

Menachem Rafaelof, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), has filed a patent for “A method for Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP) of an arbitrary sound in presence of another sound”. Accurate prediction of the audibility of an arbitrary signal in presence of noise is a difficult task. This difficulty stems from the need to handle infinite types and combinations of signals and noise with unique time and frequency characteristics; at the same time, one must account for the uncertainty in the prediction process that reflects the complex function of the human auditory system. One major category is the development of all types of quiet machines for air and land transportation, machines slated for operation in hospitals and at home, HVAC systems, industrial machines, etc. In other applications, such capability could assure that critical devices (e.g., alarms or telephones) or speech would be audible in the presence of different ambient noise. Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP) method relies on the specific loudness or loudness perceived through the individual auditory filters for accurate statistical estimation of audibility vs. time. Time-frequency prediction of audibility may provide valuable information about the root cause(s) for audibility essential for design and operation of sources of noise.

Week Ending Feb. 4, 2022

NIA-CISE STEM Education Specialist and VP of Education Programs for IGES Present the Cloud Detectives Spotlite Design Challenge in GLOBE/ESS Water Cooler Webinar

Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) and Theresa Schwerin, Vice President of Education Programs at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), presented the NASA Spotlite Challenge: Cloud Detectives to 16 participants at the GLOBE/Earth Systems Science (ESS) Collaborative Water Cooler webinar on Jan. 27, 2022.

NASA eClips has partnered with NASA’s Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), The GLOBE Program, and GLOBE Observer to co-develop and promote the NASA Spotlite Challenge: Cloud Detectives.

Harper-Neely guided participants through each phase of the Challenge, which focuses on one of two misconceptions about clouds: 1) All clouds produce rain; and 2) Clouds are made of gas. Student teams are asked to select one of the cloud misconceptions to investigate and make a claim to refute the misconception. Teams are then challenged to make observations and gather evidence to support their claim. Student teams write an engaging script and produce a 90-120 second video that addresses the misconception. In the video, teams conduct a demonstration/experiment or show how they used GLOBE cloud protocols (GLOBE Observer app or GLOBE data sheets) to disprove the misconception. The videos encourage other students to engage in science by trying the demonstration and the GLOBE Observer app, with the necessary support and supervision.

Theresa Schwerin elicited feedback from participants on how they could use the Cloud Detective challenge in their current role, as well as how the challenge could be used to further expand community engagement in GLOBE.

The NASA Spotlite Challenge: Cloud Detectives is currently accepting student teams. All submissions must be received no later than March 25, 2022.

Resources Shared:

To view the collection of NASA eClips resources, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/.
To learn more about the NASA Spotlite Design Challenge, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge.
To view the NASA Spotlite Challenge: Cloud Detectives, please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge/4.
To learn more about the GLOBE Program, please visit https://www.globe.gov/.
To learn more about the GLOBE Observer app, please visit https://observer.globe.gov/.

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents Paper at 11th ACM SIGPLAN Conference

On Jan. 17, 2022, Laura Titolo, Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), presented the paper “A Compositional Proof Framework for FRETish Requirements” at the 11th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs. The paper was co-authored with NASA researchers Esther Conrad, Dimitra Giannakopoulou, Thomas Pressburger, and Aaron Dutle. The conference was held in a hybrid virtual/in-person format. The paper was published in the ACM CPP proceedings.

NIA Senior Research Scientists Release PRECiSA Prototype Tool

An updated version of the prototype tool PRECiSA has been released (https://github.com/nasa/PRECiSA) this week. This release includes the integration of PRECiSA in the VSCode code editor. This integration provides new features such as a convenient user interface to analyze different aspects of floating-point programs. The effort was carried out by Senior Research Scientists at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Drs. Paolo Masci, Laura Titolo, Marco Feliu, and Mariano Moscato.

UMD Langley Distinguished Professor Publishes Articles in Multibody System Dynamics, Applied Mechanics and Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics

University of Maryland Langley Distinguished Professor at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), Dr. Olivier Bauchau, published the following articles in the journal Multibody System Dynamics:

Bauchau, O.A. and Nemani, N.: “Modeling Viscoelastic Behavior in Flexible Multibody Systems.” MultibodySystem Dynamics, 51(2), pp 159–194, Feb. 2021

Sonneville, V., Scapolan M., Shan, M.H., and Bauchau, O.A.: “Modal Reduction Procedures for Flexible Multibody Dynamics.” Multibody System Dynamics, 51(4), 377–418, April 2021

Applied Mechanics:

Bauchau, O.A. and Sonneville, V.: “Formulation of Shell Elements based on the Motion Formalism.” Applied Mechanics, 2(4), pp 1009–1036, December 2021

Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics:

Bauchau, O.A. and Sonneville, V.: “The Motion Formalism for Flexible Multibody Systems.” Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics, 17(2), pp 030801 1–9, March 2022.

Week Ending Jan. 21, 2022

NIA RASC-AL Program Staff Develop and Distribute Student Edition of NASA’s Newest Moon to Mars Strategy Document

Together with RASC-AL NASA Sponsors, the National Institute of Aerospace Program Management Team developed the “Exploration Frontiers: Student Edition,” an overview guide to NASA’s Moon to Mars Campaign Strategy. The purpose of the guide is to share NASA’s Moon-to-Mars strategy in a way that is user-friendly to readers from varying backgrounds. The primary audience is university students, with the intention of explaining the campaign strategy, its rationale and its highest-level systems and elements approach. It is meant to facilitate university engagement in NASA design competitions or supporting NASA research to enable them to understand how best to focus and infuse their ideas into the overall strategy. By design, the guide is dateless, high-level and uses metaphors to establish a timeless, versatile strategy overview that’s engaging, exciting, and inspirational.

On Dec. 15, 2021, following circulation to NASA colleagues by program sponsors and associated permissions/approvals, the guide was released in draft form via email and website to university students participating in the RASC-AL Competition, the BIG Idea Challenge, was published to the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge website. It was also provided to OSTEM personnel expressing interest in distributing the guide to Artemis Student Challenge participants.

Since its release in Dec., the guide has been viewed by 656 individuals via the RASC-AL website (75% of cumulative unique website visitors).

Exploration Frontiers: Student Edition can be found at the following link, which will be updated with future iterations: https://rascal.nianet.org/wp-content/uploads/2021-NASA-Exploration-Frontiers_compressed.pdf

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes Journal and SciTech 2022 Papers

Dr. Pedro Paredes Gonzalez, Senior Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), recently published two journal papers in Theoretical Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Choudhari, M., Li,F., Paredes, P., Duan, L., “Evolution of High-Frequency Instabilities in the Presence of Azimuthally Compact Crossflow Vortex Pattern Over a Yawed Cone,” Theoretical Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2022. Published online Jan. 6, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-021-00594-8
Li, F., Choudhari, M., Paredes, P., “Secondary instability of Gortler vortices in hypersonic boundary layer over an axisymmetric configuration, Theoretical Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2022. To appear. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-021-00599-3

Dr. Paredes Gonzales also published the following papers in the proceedings of the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum held Jan. 3-7, 2022.

Paredes P., Scholten A. Choudhari M., Li F., and E. Bnitez and J. Jewell, “Boundary-Layer Instabilities Over a Cone-Cylinder-Flare Model at Mach 6,” AIAA 2022-0600
Hildebrand N., Chang C.L., Choudhari M., Li F., Venkatachari B., and Paredes P. “Coupling of FUN3D and LASTRAC to Model Boundary-Layer Transition,” AIAA 2022-1952
Hill J.L., Reeder M., Thomas L., Hsu P.S., Jiang N., Grib S.W., Roy S., Borg M., Schumaker S., Scholten A., and Paredes P. “Hypersonic Laminar, Transitional, and Turbulent Boundary Layer Measurements using FLEET Velocimetry,” AIAA 2022-1704
Li F., Choudhari M. and Paredes P. “Wake Instability behind Isolated Trip near the Leading Edge of the BOLT-II Configuration,” AIAA 2022-1063
Scholten A., Paredes P., Hill J.L, Borg M., Jewell J., and Choudhari M., “Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Instabilities over Ogive-Cylinder Models,” AIAA 2022-1579
Venkatachari B., Paredes P., Choudhari M., Li F., and Chang C.-L. “Transition Analysis for the CRM-NLF Wind Tunnel Configuration using Transport Equation Models and Linear Stability Correlations,” AIAA 2022-1542

Directorate: D1 – Research Services Directorate
Key POC: D107 – Kemper S Kibler
Audience: OD
Event Date: Dec. 13, 2021

CERTAIN Smart Center Completes Initial Perimeter Surveillance Flights

The CERTAIN Smart Center (SC) team, including Jacob Revesz, Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), completed the project milestone of demonstrating an initial proof-of-concept of the capability to use an sUAS to surveil a portion of LaRC’s perimeter fence line. The Dec. 13 demo attendees included personnel from OD, ARD, COD, RD, ED, and RSD.

The Dec. 2021 milestone of demonstrating an initial proof-of-concept of LaRC’s capability to use an sUAS to perform perimeter surveillance was met on Dec. 13 by performing a live perimeter surveillance demonstration. Using a payload-equipped Alta 8 small Uninhabited Aerial System (sUAS) vehicle, live video from the vehicle was relayed to the Mission Operations & Autonomous Integration Center (MOSAIC) in B1268A for observation by an officer from Langley’s Office of Protective Services (OPS). The OPS officer, located in the MOSAIC, could request pausing of the flight plan through voice communications to the ground control station operator, who was located on the CERTAIN range, and could request camera gimbal/zoom control to inspect any anomalies to determine if the dispatch of ground units was necessary. Camera control utilized Botlink 4G LTE communications allowing the camera operator to be co-located with the OPS officer in the MOSAIC. The demonstration featured two simulated fence line anomalies, both of which were successfully identified by the OPS officer within the MOSAIC.

The successful demonstration represents six months of effort to develop a perimeter surveillance use case with OPS, obtain a suitable sUAS, stand up the MOSAIC, integrate required hardware onto the sUAS, develop camera/gimbal control software, perform all required reviews, conduct ground, caged, and initial free flight testing, and perform flight envelope expansion. The demonstration paves the way for expanding operational sUAS capabilities on the center.

2022 NIA Key Activities

NIA/NASA Disasters Staff Participate in Understanding Risk Global Forum 2022

2023 RASC-AL Competition Receives 75 Notices of Intent

2023 Gateway to Blue Skies Competition Receives 27 NOIs From University Teams

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Presents at 153rd AES Convention

NIA Research Engineer Presents at NASA Glenn Acoustics Technical Working Group

NIA Research Scholar Presents at Radiation Research Society Annual Meeting

NASA eClips™ Releases New NASA’s Real World Video for Middle School Students

NASA eClips™ Publishes Newly Revised Engineering Design Packets and Implementation Guide

NASA eClips™ Partners with NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative to Develop NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives

NASA eClips™ Supports GLOBE Clouds Match to a Million Celebration

UAS Atmospheric Measurements Supporting CST Learjet Acoustic Tests with GRC

Directorate: D1 – Research Services DirectorateKey POC: D101 – Thomas JordanAudience: ODEvent Date: Sept. 9, 2022

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminar at Boeing India

NIA Research Scientist Presents at University of Wisconsin

NIA Senior Research Engineer Awarded FY23 NAVAL HPC Pathfinder Proposal

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminars

New FAA Traffic Flow Management – Application Integration Design Challenge Announced

NIA Research Fellow Participates in 37th Annual ASC Technical Conference

NIA Senior Research Engineer AIAA Journal Receives Volume and Date of Publication

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents at IFS Research Review Forum Tech Talk

NASA eClips Releases Three Spanish-Language Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert Videos

NASA eClips Releases New Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert Video Featuring Dr. Egle Cekanaviciute

NIA's E&O Higher Ed Team Presents BIG Idea Challenge at NASA's OSTEM Better Together Conference

Additive Manufacturing Benchmark 2022 Awards and Presentations

2023 BIG Idea Challenge – Official Theme Announcement “Lunar Forge: Producing Metal Products on the Moon”

NIA-CISE Educators Share NASA eClips and Partner Resources at H.A.T.C.H. Event

NIA-CISE Team Trains Virginia Educators on ITEEA’s TEEMS and NASA eClips

Planning STEM Events Professional Development Sparks Major Community Interest in Hosting NASA-Rich STEM Community Events

NASA eClips Celebrates NASA Langley’s 105th Birthday During Day of Sharing —NASA Kids at Work STEM Event

Hampton Community Invited to Participant in Interactive STEM Outreach Event

NIA-CISE Supports the 4th Annual Summer STEM Experience for Middle School Girls

2023 Gateways to Blue Skies: ‘Clean Aviation Energy’ Competition Announced

2023 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition Announced

NIA Postdoctoral Research Scholar Presents Research at 10th ISNVD Annual Meeting

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes in AIAA Journal

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Presents to NASA Structural and Aeroacoustics Branches

NIA Senior Research Engineer Presents Authored Paper at AIAA Aviation Forum

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Collaborates in Completion of RVLT Milestone

2022 FAA Challenge Virtual Forum & Winner

NIA Research Scholar and NASA Attend REECH Community Outreach Event

NIA Senior Research Scientist Delivers Joint Talk at Virginia Commonwealth University

NIA Senior Research Scientist Publishes New Version of Runtime Monitoring Toolchain

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Collaborates in Development of SAP Algorithm

NIA-CISE Educators Conduct NASA eClip Outreach with Natasha House C.H.A.M.P.S. Program

NIA-CISE Presents Hybrid Professional Development to New York State Master Teachers Using NASA eClipS and Artemis Resources

2022 Blue Skies Competition Forum @ LaRC

NIA Senior Research Scientists Receive NASA Group Achievement Award

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Completes RVLT Annual Review Milestone

NIA Senior Research Scientist gives talk at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NIA Senior Research Scientist gives talk at the University of Southern California

NIA Scientist presents paper at International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems

NIA Scientist publishes NASA Technical Memorandum

14th International NASA Formal Methods Symposium, co-organized by NIA scientist, hosted at Caltech

NIA Senior Research Engineer Presents at NATO STO AVT-346 Spring ’22 Meeting

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Talk at ICCMAE 2022

NASA eClips Exhibits at the Virtual 2022 Virginia Children’s Engineering Convention

NIA-CISE Engages Teachers and Students in Piloting Newly Revised NASA eClips Engineering Design Packets

NASA eClips Participates in Yorktown Elementary Annual STEM Night

NIA-CISE Education Team Presents ITEEA STEMinar

NIA-CISE Presents NASA eClips at Cooper Elementary Magnet School’s Career Day

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes in AIAA Journal 2022

Grand Challenge Reviews

NIA Research Fellow Publishes NASA Technical Memorandum

2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition Finalist Teams Selected

NASA eClips Resources Featured in Earth to Sky Webinar: NASA Spotlites in Environmental Education Young Learners as Science Communicators

NASA eClips Education Team Shares Resources in 3-D Thursday Webinar for Rural Educators

NASA eClips Highlights NASA Spotlite Design Challenge at 2022 ITEEA Conference

2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition Finalist Teams Selected

CHROME Club Invites NASA eClips to Engage Middle School Students in STEM Activity

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents Demo and Gives Talk on Detect and Avoid In The Cockpit (DANTi) at NASA Langley

NIA Senior Research Engineer Gives Invited Seminar at California Institute of Technology

2022 BIG Idea Challenge Team Finalists Selected

NIA-CISE Presents NASA eClips at the 2022 Space Exploration Educators Conference

NIA Senior Research Engineer Publishes Co-Authored Article in Journal of Fluid Mechanics

2022 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition Question and Answer Session #2

NIA Research Scholar Presents at NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Files Patent for Statistical Audibility Prediction (SAP)

NIA-CISE STEM Education Specialist and VP of Education Programs for IGES Present the Cloud Detectives Spotlite Design Challenge in GLOBE/ESS Water Cooler Webinar

NIA Senior Research Scientist Presents Paper at 11th ACM SIGPLAN Conference

Directorate: D1 – Research Services Directorate
Key POC: D101 – Thomas Jordan
Audience: OD
Event Date: Sept. 9, 2022