The Texas Space Grant Consortium’s Design Challenge offers undergraduate students the opportunity to propose, design, and fabricate a solution surrounding NASA’s research objectives. Sponsored by NASA, students work in teams to complete their design objectives over one or two semesters while working with their faculty advisor and a NASA workplace mentor.
By participating in the Design Challenge, students are given the chance to engage in scientific research, hands-on design, space-related career opportunities, communication skills, and educational outreach. For the Spring 2024 program semester, 18 teams were chosen from across the state of Texas to showcase their work.
TOP DESIGN TEAM
Space Owls – Rice University
The team aimed to create a fully autonomous light tracking system for permanently shadowed regions on the Lunar surface for the upcoming Artemis missions.
Posters, models, and oral presentations were reviewed during the two-day event. Many thanks to the judges for their support and to our opening speaker Mr. Ryan Stephan, Deputy Manager for the Commercial Lunar Payloads Program.
Top Design Teams
- Space Owls – Rice University
- RELLIS Rovers – Tarleton University
- Team ATLAS – Texas Woman’s University
- Schrodinger’s Bobcats – Texas State University
The top design teams were computed by combining scores for the following categories.
Best Poster
- Team ATLAS – Texas Woman’s University
- Space Owls – Rice University
- Phonons & Photons – Texas State University
- RELLIS Rovers – Tarleton University
Best Model/Display
- RELLIS Rovers – Tarleton University
- Schrodinger’s Bobcats – Texas State University
- Space Owls – Rice University
- Team ATLAS – Texas Woman’s University
Best Oral Presentation
- Space Owls – Rice University
- Schrodinger’s Bobcats – Texas State University
- RELLIS Rovers – Tarleton University
- Space Bears – Baylor
Top Peer Review (Team Feedback)
- Space Owls – Rice University
- Team ATLAS – Texas Woman’s University
- RELLIS Rovers – Tarleton University
- Phonons & Photons – Texas State University
Congratulations to all the students and many thanks to their faculty and NASA mentors! Thank you for your support of Design Challenge.
Competing Teams
Congratulations to the 18 teams that were selected to participate in the program this semester. We have a mix of new and returning projects from the fall. The students represent thirteen Texas institutes of higher education including two community college systems and nine Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
| INSTITUTION | TEAM | DESIGN TOPIC | POSTER | VIDEO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baylor | Space Bears | 80 NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) Challenge | Download | Watch |
| Houston Community College | Team Eagle III | 92 Solubility and Diffusivity of Air in n-Petadecane | Download | Watch |
| Lamar University | CP4.0 | 87 Luminaire Intelligent Tracking (LIT) | Download | Watch |
| Lamar University | LUEE | 91 Lunar Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) | Download | Watch |
| Prairie View A&M University | Guardians of the Gears | 94 IV Fluid Generation (IVGEN) Mini Ph Correction | Download | Watch |
| Prairie View A&M University | The Panthineers | 96 Bone Conduction Headset with Hearing Protection Design | Download | Watch |
| Rice University | Space Owls | 87 Luminaire Intelligent Tracking (LIT) | Download | Watch |
| San Jacinto College (North Campus) | Team Titan | 86 Integrated Camera & Lighting System Optical Optimization Project | TBD | TBD |
| Tarleton State University | The RELLIS Rovers | 91 Lunar Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) | Download | Watch |
| Texas A&M University | Hermes | 94 IV Fluid Generation (IVGEN) Mini Ph Correction | Download | TBD |
| Texas State University | Phonons & Photons | 32 Dual-use Wideband Microphone Array | Download | Watch |
| Texas State University | Schrodinger’s Bobcats | 86 Integrated Camera & Lighting System Optical Optimization Project | Download | Watch |
| Texas Women’s University | Team Atlas | 00 Mitigation of Muscle Atrophy During Long-duration Space Flight | Download | Watch |
| University of Houston Clear Lake | Team Orion | 86 Integrated Camera & Lighting System Optical Optimization Project | Download | Watch |
| University of Houston Clear Lake | Team Vulcan | 40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Hand Carrier for Lunar EVA Tools | Download | Watch |
| University of Texas at Austin | NASA Battery | 95 Battery Barrier Blast Plate Incident Impulse Measurement System | Download | Watch |
| University of Texas at Austin | Dust Bunnies | 97 Lunar Dust Mitigation Solutions | Download | Watch |
| University of Texas at Tyler | Dream Team | 89 Wearable Ultrasound for Vascular Imaging | Download | Watch |
