40 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • NOVEMBER 12, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
Queensborough Community College in
Bayside awarded second NASA Grant
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queensborough Community College in
Bayside is one of two community colleges
across the nation to receive a NASA award
to contribute to the preparation, training,
and development of NASA’s future workforce.
Th e college is the recipient of a NASA
MUREP MISTC-2 (Minority University
Research and Education Project —
Innovations in Space Technology
Curriculum-Group 2).Th e grant entitled,
“Using Technology to Engage and Inspire
Students to Explore (SpaceTechEngine),”
was funded in the amount of $410,574 for
two years.
Queensborough is partnering on the
grant with the NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center (GSFC) Mission Engineering
and Systems Analysis (MESA) Division,
the Atmospheric & Space Technology
Research Associates (ASTRA), and City
College of New York (CUNY) to capitalize
on NASA’s ability to inspire both students
and the public.
“Th is grant presents a wonderful opportunity
to further establish our relationship
with NASA, and to inspire our excellent
students, despite these unprecedented
times, to still see their dreams as reachable
goals,” said Dr. M. Chantale Damas,
associate professor in the Department of
Physics at Queensborough, and principal
investigator of the grant.
According to Damas, a goal of the grant
is to increase the participation of groups
historically underrepresented in STEM
fi elds so they too may imagine themselves
as a new generation of scholars, researchers,
engineers and astronauts.
Queensborough President Dr. Christine
Mangino off ered her congratulations to
Damas on the NASA MUREP MISTC-
2 grant.
“Dr. Damas is clearly a champion of
her students and instills in them the
technologically sophisticated knowledge
and skills that are essential for continuing
their education and to qualify for
any number of promising research and
career opportunities in the STEM fi elds,”
Mangino said.
Students will work on the Plasma
Enhancements in The Ionosphere-
Th ermosphere Satellite (petitSat), a NASA
funded CubeSat mission to be deployed
from the International Space Station (ISS)
in 2021.
Th e petitSat Principal Investigator
(PI) is NASA scientist Jeff rey Klenzing.
Students will investigate both space
weather eff ects on the ionosphere, which
refl ects and modifi es radio waves used for
communication and navigation; and simulate
interacting with a CubeSat for preliminary
assembly, integration and testing
(AI&T).
CubeSats are small satellites which measure
10cm x 10cm x 10cm, and oft en ride
on a rocket to the ISS. Th ese small satellites
play a valuable role in NASA’s exploration,
technology, educational, and science
investigations, including planetary
exploration, Earth observation, and fundamental
Earth and space science.
Th ey are a cornerstone in the development
of cutting-edge NASA technologies,
as shown by the Mars Cube One
(MARCO) CubeSats, which were part of
NASA’s recent Insight Mission to Mars.
Th e project is particularly relevant to the
following two NASA’s Strategic objectives:
Understand the Sun, Earth, Solar System,
and Universe; and Inspire, engage, educate,
and employ the next generation of
explorers through NASA-unique STEM
learning opportunities.
Th is past summer, Damas ran an
eight-week research program with Dr.
Sean Semper, a lead engineer at NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center in MESA’s
Components and Hardware Systems
branch.
“Unfortunately, because of COVIDrelated
issues, the program scaled back
the number from eight to four students:
three CUNY students and one student
from Rutgers University-New Brunswick,”
Damas said.
Materials were shipped to students to
build prototypes of their 1U (unit) CubeSats
using only commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) components. Students worked in
teams to solve CubeSat engineering-related
challenges and were successful at building
their CubeSat prototypes.
Queensborough is currently running
a course focused on space science and
technology in which students apply the
same methods used during the summer to
build their own COTS CubeSats.
Queensborough graduate Yang He was
among the students who participated in
the summer program.
“It was very exciting to learn so much
about designing, building and testing
CubeSats,” He said. “I have been privileged
to work with Dr. Damas over the
past several years. She gave all of her students
the freedom we needed in order to
discover things for ourselves.”
He plans to graduate from City College
in the spring of 2021 and apply for a paid
internship at NASA Pathways Program.
His future aspirations are to pursue his
doctorate in a related fi eld and one day
own his own laboratory.
Th is grant follows Damas’s 2015 NASA
MUREP Community College Curriculum
Improvement (MC3I) grant in the amount
of $750,000 entitled CUNY-NASA Solar
and Atmospheric Research Program and
Education Partnership (CUNY-NASA
SOLARPREP).
Queensborough was one of four community
colleges across the nation to
receive the award, which is designed to
provide student training and expand
course off erings to students in the
Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
Th e curriculum (MC3I) was successful
at helping community college students
persist, graduate and fi nd their career
path, and the program was featured in an
article in the Space Weather Journal.
Queensborough 2016 graduate
Christopher Tandoi, was a student funded
from this program.
Tandoi continued his studies and
research at York College and is now pursuing
his doctorate in instrumentationdesigning
lenses for telescopes at the
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.
“Meeting Dr. Damas was a turning
point in my life,” Tandoi said. “One day
she visited my physics II class and handed
out fl yers off ering undergraduate research
opportunities in Space Weather. I spoke
with her, applied and that was it. My days
as a below-average student were over.”
Danny Munoz, another 2016 graduate
participated in this program and was
funded by a grant from the National
Science Foundation (NSF) Geosciences
Directorate.
He is now an electronic chemical engineer
at Northrop Grumman, an aerospace
and defense company, located in
Photo courtesy of Queensborough Community College
Redondo Beach, Calif. Upon graduating
from Queensborough, he moved
on to City College, where he continued
research in the college’s electrical engineering
department.
“I am a fi rst-generation student who
didn’t know the language when I fi rst
came to Queensborough. Dr. Damas was
compassionate and told me that if I apply
myself and take on new challenges so I
can achieve anything,” Munoz said.
Both Tandoi and Munoz worked as
research interns at NASA, and throughout
their academic careers at Queensborough
under the mentorship of Damas and Dr.
Chigomezyo Ngwira, formerly a research
associate resident at the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center.
Damas expressed her deep gratitude to
Ngwira at ASTRA, Dr. Masha Kuznetsova
and staff at the Community Coordinated
Modeling Center (CCMC) — which fi rst
welcomed community college students
at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
— Queensborough Physics Department
colleagues Dr. Tak D. Cheung and Dr.
Paul J. Marchese, and City College Grove
School of Engineering colleague Dr.
Roger Dorsinville, for supporting her
eff orts.
“Our mission is to inspire motivated
students before they graduate so that
they may fulfi ll their dreams of working
at NASA or launch exceptional careers,”
Dama said. “Queensborough has also
supported many community college students
nationwide. I always remind my former
Queensborough students: remember
where you got your start; be proud of what
you accomplished at Queensborough.”
Damas gratefully acknowledges support
from the NASA MUREP MISTC-
2 (Minority University Research and
Education Project—Innovations in Space
Technology Curriculum—Group 2) under
NASA Award Number 80NSSC19M0221,
NASA MUREP Community College
Curriculum Improvement (MC3I) under
NASA Award Number NNX15AV96A;
and the National Science Foundation
(NSF) Geosciences Directorate under
NSF Award Number DES-1446704.
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