CO_FY16_Year2_APD

Colorado Space Grant Consortium Lead Institution: University of Colorado Boulder Director: Chris Koehler Telephone Number: 303.492.3141 Consortium URL: http://spacegrant.colorado.edu Grant Number: NNX15AK04H Lines of Business (LOBs): NASA Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships; Stem Engagement; Institutional Engagement; Educator Professional Development

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program consists of 52 state-based, university- led Space Grant Consortia in each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Annually, each consortium receives funds to develop and implement student fellowships and scholarships programs; interdisciplinary space-related research infrastructure, education, and public service programs; and cooperative initiatives with industry, research laboratories, and state, local, and other governments. Space Grant operates at the intersection of NASA’s interest as implemented by alignment with the Mission Directorates and the state’s interests. Although it is primarily a higher education program, Space Grant programs encompass the entire length of the education pipeline, including elementary/secondary and informal education. The Colorado Space Grant Consortium is a Designated Consortium funded at a level of $760,000 for fiscal year 2016.

B. PROGRAM GOALS • Population of students engaged in COSGC hands-on programs (awardees and non- awardees) will be at least 40% women and 23.7% from ethnic minority populations underrepresented in STEM fields. • Maintain student hands-on programs at all 8 COSGC Minority Serving Institutions and engaged at least 30 students on MSI campuses. • 30% of COSGC NASA funds will be awarded directly to students. • Award 80 scholarships to support students working on hands-on projects. • Facilitate the RockOn Workshop and RockSat-C and –X programs in collaboration with NASA . • Continue to facilitate statewide activities DemoSat (balloon payloads), Robotics Challenge, and Undergraduate Symposium. • Engage 120 non-award participants in Higher Education (HE)hands-on projects. • Every COSGC affiliate will facilitate at least 1 HE hands-on student project. • At least 4 affiliates will facilitate 2 HE hands-on student projects. • At least 3 affiliates will facilitate 3 or more HE student projects. • Facilitate 1 low-Earth orbiting project. • Continue internship collaborations with Lockheed Martin and Digital Globe.

1 • At least 3 affiliates will facilitate Research Infrastructure (RI) projects on their home campuses. • At least 15 students will be engaged in RI projects. • Provide teacher training of at least 5 weeks of instruction for at least 60 teachers total.

C. PROGRAM/PROJECT BENEFITS TO PROGRAM AREAS

1) COSGC team was one of 5 teams that made it to the finals for the NASA BIG Idea Competition at Langley. [Authentic Hands-On Projects, NIFS, Workforce Development]

2) Completion of the first combined Community College sounding payload mission, with the successful launch of the payload summer 2016. Established framework to continue the effort and resulted in presentation of results from the RICH detector at the 4- corners regional meeting of the American Physical Society in October 2016. Students won the Best Student Talk award. [Authentic Hands-On Projects, NIFS, Community College Engagement, Workforce Development]

3) COSGC celebrated the 10th year of the Colorado Robotics Challenge. The event is in collaboration with the Great Sand Dunes National Park and challenges student teams to build autonomous robots to demonstrate at the site of the testing of NASA’s Viking landers. The event continues to attract more student teams every year. [Authentic Hands-On Projects, NIFS, Community College Engagement, Workforce Development]

D. PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS • NASA Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships (NIFS): a. 238 students who were engaged in hands-on projects were awarded scholarships (Goal – 80) b. Awards were 35% women and 22% underrepresented (Goal 40% & 23.7%)

• Higher Education projects: a. Student projects were facilitated at all 8 COSGC Minority Serving Institutions (Goal – 8). b. 90 students were engaged at the above-mentioned MSIs (Goal – 30) c. COSGC facilitated the RockOn Workshop and RockSat-C and –X programs in collaborations with NASA Wallops Flight Facility. d. Engaged 317 non-awardee students in Higher Education (HE) hands-on projects (Goal - 120). e. ALL COSGC affiliates facilitated at least 1HE hands-on project. (Goal – ALL). f. 6 affiliates facilitated 2 HE hands-on projects (Goal - 4) – ACC, RRCC, OJC, CCD, CSU-Pueblo, UCCS. g. 11 affiliates facilitated 3 or more HE hands-on projects (Goal – 3) – ASU, CCA, CMU, CSM, CSU, FLC, PCC, TSJC, UNC, WSCU, CU.

Higher Education (HE) Projects included: • Astronomical Observing

2 • Short- and long-duration High Altitude Balloon Payloads • Autonomous Robotics Projects • Sounding Rocket Payloads • Undergraduate Laboratory Research • Senior Design Teams • Training Workshops • Theoretical Physics Projects • Balloon Payload Courses • Robotics Courses • Underrepresented Student Society Workshops • Participation in NASA sponsored competitions • Research Infrastructure projects: a. Facilitated 1 low-earth orbiting satellite projects (Goal – 1) at CU b. Continued internship collaborations with Lockheed Martin and Digital Globe.

RI Projects included: • Earth orbiting CubeSat missions • Graduate space-focused research projects

• Precollege projects: a. At the time of this report, no teacher workshops have been facilitated. They are scheduled for March and April 2017 (the final 2 months of the period of performance). Reporting of total workshops and numbers of teachers engaged will be reported via OEPM.

• Informal Education projects: a. 4 COSGC affiliate institutions facilitated 12 activities, engaging 447 K-12 students and community members. As an ad-hoc activity, there are not specific goals.

E. PROGRAM CONTRIBUTIONS TO NASA EDUCATION PERFORMANCE GOALS • Diversity: COSGC includes: o 8 Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) o 9 two-year colleges o 1 four-year baccalaureate colleges o 4 four-year baccalaureate through masters institutions o 5 universities through PhD o 1 non-profit organization • 35% of 238 scholarships were awarded to women • 22% of 238 scholarships were awarded to minority students underrepresented in STEM disciplines. • 98% of 238 scholarships were awarded to undergraduate students • Of the 317 students participating who did not receive fellowship/scholarship awards: o 29% were women

3 o 18% were students from ethnic minority populations underrepresented in STEM disciplines • Overall COSGC population of 555 engaged students included: o 32% women o 20% underrepresented minority • Of 30 faculty involved: o 20% were women o 5% were underrepresented

• Minority Serving Institution Collaborations: Authentic hands-on student projects were facilitated at all COSGC MSIs. These included high altitude balloon payloads, autonomous robotics projects, astronomical observing opportunities, and facilitation of specialized courses including Introduction to Experimental Design, Robotics, and Data Analysis.

• Office of Education Annual Performance Indicators:

o API 2.4.1: ED-16-1 134 (Number of NIFS to underrepresented students)

o API 2.4.2: ED-16-2 0 (Number of educators)

o API 2.4.4: ED-16-4 12 (Number of informal education events) Events included: o Development and facilitation of hands-on displays for Math/Science Center o Facilitation of community Robotics Makerspace o Facilitation of Rocket Day at Local School District o Mentoring of K-12 student First Lego League teams o Tours of student labs and projects, coupled with hands-on activities to engage younger students and general public in missions.

o API 2.4.5: ED-16-5 447 (Number of K-12 students)

F. IMPROVEMENTS MADE IN THE PAST YEAR • Review of outcomes and lessons learned from the first combined community college sounding rocket project. Determined the program should continue. Awarded supplemental funds to three COSGC community college campuses to begin second iteration of the program, incorporating improvements. • Awarded supplemental funds to support starting work on new statewide initiatives including robotic wearables workshop series and competition; development of workshop for students with visual impairments; and new Mars habitat program. • Aims Community College has established the high-altit ude balloon payload program int o a new course on campus. The result has been the most effective facilitation of balloon payload projects on the Aims campus since Aims joined COSGC in 2015. This was made possible, by the efforts of the Community College of Aurora Space Grant that successfully

4 established a balloon payload course within the state system (Introduction to Experimental Design) that is now available to all Colorado community colleges.

G. CURRENT AND PROJECTED CHALLENGES • All COSGC programs continue to actively recruit and retain an inclusive population of students on every campus. While most are either meeting or coming very close to the stated goals for underrepresented students, all campuses continue to struggle to keep the numbers at or above the goals. Most frustrating is when an approach that has been successful for multiple years, suddenly does not work. What makes this challenge less formidable, is that all affiliate directors are committed to continue the work and to continue to support each other in the efforts.

H. PROGRAM PARTNERS AND ROLE OF PARTNERS IN PROJECT EXECUTION

• Adams State University (ASU) (4-yr, Baccalaureate & Graduate): Minority Serving Institution; Facilitates hands-on student programs and informal education activities. • Aims Community College (AiCC) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution; Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Arapahoe Community College (ArCC) (2-yr college) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Colorado Mesa University (CMU) (University through PhD) Facilitates hands-on student programs and informal education activities. • Colorado School of Mines (CSM) (University through PhD): Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Colorado State University (CSU) (University through PhD): Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Colorado State University – Pueblo (CSU-Pueblo) (4-yr Baccalaureate & Graduate): Minority Serving Institution; Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Community College of Aurora (CCA) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution; Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Community College of Denver (CCD) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution; Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Fort Lewis College (FLC) (4-yr Baccalaureate) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Otero Junior College (OJC) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution: Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Pikes Peak Community College (PPCC) (2-yr college) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Pueblo Community College (PCC) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution. Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Red Rocks Community College (RRCC) (2-yr college) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Space Foundation (non-profit organization) Facilitates professional development workshops for pre- and in-service teachers. • Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC) (2-yr college) Minority Serving Institution. Facilitates hands-on student programs. • University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) (University through PhD) Facilitates hands-on student programs & fulfills duties as Lead Institution.

5 • University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) (University through PhD) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • University of Northern Colorado (UNC) (University through PhD) Facilitates hands-on student programs. • Western State Colorado University (WSCU) (4-yr Baccalaureate) Facilitates hands-on student programs.

COSGC programs are only possible through collaborations with industry; government labs; academic departments, programs, and labs; NASA centers; and non-profit community organizations. These partners provide mentors, hardware donations, launch opportunit ies, funding, and/or testing facilities. The following is a list of partners that directly contributed to COSGC student projects this award period: INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

• Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. – donated equipment to the robotics program at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) • The Climate Corporation / 640 Labs – donated equipment to the CMU robotics program. • Lockheed Martin – Provides testing facilities and funding for student satellite missions at University of Colorado at Boulder (CU); provides judges for the COSGC Undergraduate Space Research Symposium; provides guest lecturers for Gateway to Space and Pathway to Space courses at CU; provides mentors for Robotic Mining Competition team at Colorado School of Mines. • Analytical Graphics, Inc. – Site licenses for Satellite Toolkit software used by students at University Colorado at Boulder (CU) for satellite missions; Provides free workshops for students; Speaker at CU course; and mentors for CU space hardware projects. • SparkFun Electronics – Support of statewide robotics endeavors including access to hardware and mentors for projects statewide. • FirstRF – Provides mentors for University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) satellite projects. • Andy Lindsay, Parallax Inc. – supplies software and online training for student robotics projects at Trinidad State Junior College. Also, donated Activity Bots and helped with software troubleshooting. • Honeybee Robotics, Casey Kuhns – mentors robotics team at Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC) • Assess2Perform, Scott Damman – provides student project experiences for students at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) Space Grant.

ACADEMIC PARTNERS:

• Adams State University (ASU) Department of Chemistry, Computer Science, and Mathematics – Faculty support and use of equipment • Alamosa School District – provides housing and tools for the San Luis Valley STEAM Shop and faculty from Ortega Middle School and Alamosa High School. These resources are utilized by ASU Space Grant students working on autonomous robotics projects.

6 • Tom Dillon, Community College of Aurora (CCA) Biology Faculty – Guest lecturer and high altitude scientific balloon payload student team mentor. • Martha Jackson-Carter, CCA Chemistry Faculty – Guest lecturer • Mike Hoganson, CCA Adjunct Instructor – CCA Robotics Course instructor and mentoring 6 robotics teams. • Jared Workman, CMU Physics Department – Mentors student research. • Dr. Anthony Marchese, Colorado State University (CSU), Mechanical Engineering Department – Mentor CSU senior design rocket team. • Dr. John Williams, CSU Mechanical Engineering – Provides CSU high altitude balloon payloads teams with vacuum chamber access and instruction. • Dr. Arsineh Hecobian, CSU Department of – mentors CSU graduate laser research. • Dr. Jeff Pierce, CSU Department of Atmospheric Science – mentors CSU graduate laser research. • University of Colorado, Chancellor’s Office – partnering on development of the new campus wide, all-major Space Minor, part of the Chancellor’s Grand Challenge. • CU, Aerospace Engineering Department – Provides mentors for CU student satellite missions. • Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) – Provides machining, electronics, and software for CU student projects. • The Center for Environmental Technology – Provides mentors for the PolarCube mission at University of Colorado at Boulder. • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers/Mexican American Engineering Society (SHPE/MAES) – University of Colorado and Colorado State University chapters – collaborate with Space Grant to offer workshops to students to teach basic Arduino and soldering skills. CU chapter helps recruit students for balloon payload project. • Society of Women Engineers (SWE) - University of Colorado and Colorado State University chapters – collaborate with Space Grant to offer workshops to students to teach basic Arduino and soldering skills. CU chapter helps recruit students for balloon payload project. • National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) - University of Colorado chapter - collaborate with Space Grant to offer workshops to students to teach basic Arduino and soldering skills. CU chapter helps recruit students for balloon payload project. • CU Idea Forge – Provides machining facility for student balloon payload, sounding rocket, and CubeSat missions. • Alex Hostiuk, Fort Lewis College (FLC) – lab coordinator helped with FLC student project space organization and 3-D printer logistics. • Dr. Ryan Smith, FLC – Mentored FLC student robotics projects. Dr. Smith has also been instrumental in the development of the 3-D printer activities at FLC. • Wesley Burgett, Texas Tech University - lead the effort to install the West Texas station at the Old Fort Lewis Observatory, supporting FLC student observatory research projects and observatory performance. • Pueblo Community College (PCC) President’s Leadership Program – Supports student leaders at PCC to manage projects within the PCC STEM center.

7 • Stephanie Pauley & David Oswandel, Pikes Peak Community (PPCC) College Lab Coordinators – advise PPCC student balloon payload teams, provide lab space and equipment for projects. • Te rri Aguero, PPCC Health & Sciences – mentors PPCC balloon payloads teams • University of Northern Colorado (UNC) School of Sport and Exercise Science – provides data and fulfills role of “customer” for UNC students to engage in physics research projects • Dr. Richard Die tz, Profe ssor Eme ritus UNC – mentoring UNC heliostat student team • Dr. Charles Kuehn, UNC Astronomy – mentoring UNC student team working on eclipse payload. • Dr. John Peterson, Western State Colorado University (WSCU) Computer Science Department – student advisor for WSCU robotics projects. • Dr. Tobin Munsat & Dr. Xu Wang, University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) – mentored student research at Colorado School of Mines (CSM). • Dr. Leslie Gertsch, Missouri University of Science and Technology – mentored student research at CSM. • Dr. Matt Posewitz, CSM Environmental Engineering Department – advisor for CSM student high altitude scientific balloon payload.

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS: • Army Research Office – funding for the Summer Research Program in Artificial Intelligence and Social & Emotional Robotics on the ASU campus. • Eben Thomas, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – mentors CSU graduate laser research • NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office – Provides mentors for the PolarCube CubeSat mission. • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Provide speakers in courses at University of Colorado at Boulder and judges for the Colorado Undergraduate Space Research Symposium. Also provides mentor for the Trinidad State Junior College robotics team. • NASA Wallops Flight Facility – provides facility, mentors, staff, and launch operations for the RockOn Workshop and RockSat-C and –X programs. • Great Sand Dunes National Park – provides location for the Colorado Robotics Challenge, including providing park rangers to speak at the event and provide security/support. • National Weather Service, John Lipe – Coordinated the installation of the West Texas Mesonet weather station at the Old Fort Lewis Observatory, supporting FLC student observatory research projects and observatory performance. • National Snow and Ice Data Center - provides mentors and graduate students in support of the payload mission at University of Colorado Boulder (CU). • Air Force Office of Scientific Research – provides mentors and project framework for the CU PolarCube mission.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

8 • John McConnell Math and Science Center – provides space and supplies for CMU students to interact with younger students and the general public. • Edge of Space Sciences – provides launches for the COSGC balloon payload program (non- profit organization only charges the cost of consumables for each launch). Also provides mentors for balloon payload projects. • Four Corne rs Stargaze rs – host star parties for the general public that Fort Lewis College Space Grant students attend to learn telescope basics and build upon skills for astronomical observing projects. • Durango Nature Center – provides location and host star parties for the general public that Fort Lewis College Space Grant students attend to learn telescope basics and build upon skills for astronomical observing projects. • Howl Woodworks, Karen Howl – provides technical construction support for the Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC) robotics teams. • Earl Nesbit, community member Trinidad, CO – provides technical support for the electrical and programming aspects of the TSJC robotics and balloon payload projects. • Northe rn Colorado Rocke try Group – advise student team at University of Northern Colorado (UNC) on rocket project, including helping the institution to gain credentials. • Gunnison Valley Observatory – Provides use of observatory for Western State Colorado University (WSCU) student research projects.

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