Calvin Students Partner with NASA

April 20, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

A quartet of Calvin College engineering majors scored an impressive coup last
month when they were selected to present their senior design project at the
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellows Meeting.

The Calvin students' poster was selected as one of four from a dozen student
entries. The other students with poster presentations were from Harvard, LSU
and the University of Washington. NIAC paid for travel to and accommodations
at the meeting.

The students - Joel Eigege (Jos, Nigeria), Ken Van Dyken (Hudsonville), Paul
Sokomba (Jos, Nigeria) and Dan Mouw (Jenison) - are developing an instrument
which would fly on stratospheric balloons and gather data about global warming.
  This balloon instrument would provide more accurate measurements of thermal
energy leaving the Earth than existing satellite-based instruments, improved
data which could be used to develop better predictions about global warming.

But things got even better for the students this month when they learned their
project has received further funding from NASA.

And while the amount might be modest (it's likely to amount to about $500)
Calvin professor of engineering Matt Heun says the prestige of funding is far
more important than the actual dollars.

"This is a big deal," says Heun, who prior to coming to Calvin worked for
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Scientifically, this is a really
significant effort and Calvin could have a hand in developing an instrument
that provides answers to one of the biggest questions facing humanity at this
time. Granted, the monetary amount is not huge. But, it brings national
recognition for Calvin College."

At their presentation last month, Heun says, the students had an audience of
about 50 "forward-thinking NASA folks."

Adds Heun: "It was a great opportunity and the students did very well in
describing their concept and talking with the NASA folks. Personally, I was
very proud of them and the way they handled themselves professionally. And, it
was a great educational experience for them to hear all the exciting futuristic
concepts. We don't know which, if any, of the concepts discussed at the
meeting will be implemented in the future. But, if any are, the students will
be able to say that they heard about it long before anyone else! It was great
stuff."

One example, says Heun, of the educational component of the meetings came when
the attendees this year were briefed by Jim Garvin, NASA's head scientist for
Mars.

"His talk," says Heun, "was delayed by one day due to his participation in the
press conference that announced evidence for past liquid water at Mars. It was
fabulous for the students and me to hear the details of the scientific findings
from the person who was right in the thick of it."

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts is an organization whose mandate is
the discovery of new concepts for space exploration and insertion of relevant
technologies into NASA's strategic plans for further development. The Fellows
meeting is the place where everyone working on NIAC concepts (the Fellows)
gathers for presentations on the status of their studies.

Heun says the concepts range from the wild to the interesting, but all of them
have a basis in reality. In fact, NIAC has a science panel that is comprised
of several prominent NASA and ex-NASA folks (including the ex-head of the NASA
Mars Program, Donna Shirley). The science panel reviews all proposed concepts,
throws out the science fiction, and selects only a fraction of the proposed
concepts for funding for concept development.

In addition to their primary activities, NIAC also runs a "NIAC Student
Visions of the Future" (NSVFP) program that encourages undergraduate students
to develop concepts for space exploration.

During the meeting NIAC's science panel reviewed the student posters. Based on
that review, the balloon radiometer concept was selected for further
development and funding.

As part of the engineering curriculum at Calvin, all seniors are required to
take part in a year-long course called "senior design" in which the seniors
break into teams, usually by their engineering concentration, and select a
project to work on throughout the year. The project is meant to be challenging
and is intended to help the students experience what life will be like working
at a company a year after graduation.

All of the Calvin student senior design teams will unveil its research for the
general public from 4:30-6 pm on Saturday, May 8 in the Calvin Engineering
Building.

For more on the balloon radiometer team see
http://engr.calvin.edu/SeniorDesign/SeniorDesign03-04/Team06/index.htm

For a photo of Joel Eigege (Jos, Nigeria), Ken Van Dyken (Hudsonville), Paul
Sokomba (Jos, Nigeria) and Dan Mouw (Jenison), in that order, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/photos/students/engineering_team.jpg

For more on all of the senior design teams see
http://engr.calvin.edu/courses/engr339_340/2003-2004teams.htm

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Received on Tue Apr 20 13:31:09 2004