February 17, 2023 at 10:30am CT
Speaker: Tim Urban, Director, Texas Space Grant Consortium
Host: Krista Soderlund
Title: Texas Space Grant Consortium: Inspiring and Engaging a STEM Workforce for Artemis and Beyond
Abstract: The Texas Space Grant Consortium is one of 52 nationwide jurisdictions in the National College Space Grant and Fellowship Program funded under NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. Space Grant’s goal is to contribute to the nation’s science enterprise by funding education, research, and public engagement projects through a national network of university-based Space Grant consortia. The Texas Space Grant network includes more than 60 entities statewide and works with students and faculty from more than 40 academic institutions across the state. This talk will present program opportunities for students at all academic levels and describe a variety of student projects. One highlighted project is the Texas Space Grant Design Challenge competition, which is a unique academic experience offering undergraduate students an opportunity to propose, design, and fabricate a solution toward solving research objectives of importance to NASA and its mission. Student teams work with mentors from NASA’s Johnson Space Center to provide students the opportunity to work on NASA’s most challenging new problems for sending astronauts into space, developing spin-off technologies for those of us here on Earth, returning to the Moon with the Artemis mission, and exploring Mars and beyond.