Research Archives - �鶹��

Laurel Ridge Community College Students Attend NASA/West Virginia Space Grant Hack Week Program

Kristyn Damadeo — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:51:53 +0000

Students from Laurel Ridge Community College were sponsored by the �鶹�� (VSGC) are attending a NASA/West Virginia Space Grant Hack Week Program this week at West Virginia University. The students and their faculty advisor, Melissa Stange worked on Fault Diagnosis for Safety-Critical Autonomous Systems. The educational and training activities introduced the participants to the critical problem-space of Fault Diagnosis on-board spacecraft with the goal of generating novel solutions. The team is working with WVU faculty and technical experts from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that are serving as mentors. VSGC also sponsored participants from Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech.

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Mary Sandy Honored with NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal

Kristyn Damadeo — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:46:35 +0000

�鶹�� Director Mary Sandy was honored with NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal at the NASA May 24 Honor Awards Ceremony at NASA Langley Research Center.

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Bringing Crewed Mission Planning to a New Digital Frontier

Kristyn Damadeo — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 20:21:30 +0000

The �鶹�� (VSGC) will be launching the first of our online summer programs, the Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS), June 13.

Ian Cawthray, VSGC’s education programs coordinator, is taking charge of the six-day-long program.

“The purpose of VASTS is to educate today’s students on the space mission design process used by NASA through challenging their abilities to communicate and plan for the nearly infinite challenges of human spaceflight,” said Cawthray. “The students in each week of the VASTS Summer Academy collaboratively design a human mission to Mars in only a matter of days.”

Although all of our summer programs are now online, VSGC has taken every step to ensure all participants have the same experience in this new online platform.

“The biggest challenges in transitioning to an online format were maintaining the communications and social aspects of the VASTS Summer Academy,” said Cawthray. “We will achieve the goal of re-creating the critical aspects of the Summer Academy. [We are] combining our Content Management System and the ODU Distance Learning Webex system, in order to keep students discussing, planning, and solving problems.”

In addition to mission planning, the program will once again be hosting Astronaut Dr. Roger Crouch as it’s guest speaker, who has flown two space shuttle flights, STS-83 and STS-94.

“Dr. Crouch has been presenting to VASTS students for the last ten years,” said Cawthray. “His story of never giving up on your dreams is designed to encourage the VASTS students as they tackle this challenge and before they begin on their individual journeys to tackle the other challenges they’ll face in their careers and lives.”

When talking about his involvement in VASTS, Cawthray does not take his role lightly.

“This program is important to building the skills and futures of students in Virginia,” said Cawthray. “Being able to assist in the growth of hundreds of students a year is an important job to take on.”

Furthermore, the use of an online platform opens new possibilities for future programs.

“We will certainly be able to have a significant amount of lessons learned that we’ll be able to make use of in re-vamping the Summer Academy next year,” said Cawthray. “The new tools and techniques for delivering the VASTS Summer Academy will be crucial in pushing the limits of in-person and virtual technologies for a better student experience.”

VASTS will have two more iterations this summer, July 12-17 and July 26-31, with a total attendance of 223 students.

Visit from more information on our summer programs.

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VSGC Summer Programs: A New Digital Frontier

Kristyn Damadeo — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:15:16 +0000

The �鶹�� is now offering an online alternative to our summer programs. With the help of Old Dominion University’s Office of Distance Learning, our summer programs and internships are happening in spite of a global pandemic. Now lets get to it!

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VSGC Scholarships and Fellowships, 2019-2020

Kristyn Damadeo — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 19:38:23 +0000

Interested in research topics that win �鶹�� scholarships? The 2019-2020 VSGC Scholarship and Fellowship awardees and research titles have been posted to the website. Seventy-four awardees; 33 graduate, 11 undergraduate, 25 �鶹�� Bridge and five community college students received fellowships and scholarships this year. Learn more about the winners

The Undergraduate �鶹�� Research Scholarship Program provides awards of up to $8,500 to rising juniors and seniors who are enrolled full-time in a �鶹�� discipline and have a specific faculty-mentored research project that has NASA or aerospace relevance.

VSGC provides a $6,000 Graduate Research �鶹�� Research Fellowships to students majoring in �鶹�� disciplines. Fellowships require students to participate in a faculty-mentored research experience that aligns with NASA’s missions.

Scholarship and fellowships are available to VSGC member institutions; Old Dominion University, College of William and Mary, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Hampton University. Community College �鶹�� Scholarships are available to students at any Virginia community college.

Graduate and undergraduate applications for 2020-2021 are due on Jan. 30, 2020. �鶹�� Bridge and community college applications are due March 13, 2020

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Virginia Tech Remote Sensing and GIS Symposium

Kristyn Damadeo — Tue, 14 May 2019 15:32:08 +0000

This year, the 2019 Virginia Tech Office of GIS and Remote Sensing Symposium received 35 posters representing research in both undergraduate and graduate categories in GIS and Remote Sensing. Presentations during the program included Digital Transformation: Possibilities for a Geo-Enabled Campus, 47 Years of Satellite Remote Sensing and What is Next? and Physics-guided Data Science: Challenges and Opportunities in Combining Machine Learning with Physical Knowledge in Geosciences. The �鶹�� sponsors the cash prizes for the winning posters every year. This year’s graduate student poster showcase winners were:

First Place – $250: Megan Stevenson for her research on “The Effects of Land Cover Change on the Spatial Distribution of Lyme Disease in Northern Virginia Since 2005.”

Second Place – $150: Molly Mcknight for “Renewable Energy Siting Project (SRES).”

Third Place – $100: Yanshen Sun for “Evaluating the quality of ground surfaces generated from Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) data.”

Showcase abstracts can be downloaded

More information on the Virginia Tech Office of GIS and Remote Sensing can be found

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VSGC Graduate and Undergraduate Papers Now Online

Kristyn Damadeo — Fri, 10 May 2019 12:39:25 +0000

What does a good �鶹�� research paper look like? The 2018-2019 Graduate and Undergraduate Research �鶹�� Scholarship winning papers are now posted online. The subjects include research in a variety of �鶹�� fields including chemistry, biology, astronomy, engineering, physics and atmospheric sciences. In the photograph above, ODU’s George McLeod presents his research at the VSGC Student Research Conference. His topic is the characterization of uncertainty in inundation models and watershed hypsometry for identification and assessment of non-linear impacts of sea level rise.

Follow the links under the individual profiles at to read the papers.

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VSGC Programs

Kristyn Damadeo — Tue, 07 May 2019 14:32:30 +0000

Did you know that VSGC offers a variety of programs and scholarships for students and faculty from middle school all the way to graduate school? We also offer opportunities for educators. Download an interactive pdf to learn more about our programs.

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Upcoming deadlines for VSGC programs

Kristyn Damadeo — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 19:47:06 +0000

Deadlines are coming up for many of our 2019 programs for both K-12 and Higher Education. For more information visit the direct links: (high school), (8th and 9th grade), (Virginia Community College students),

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ACRP Design Competition 2018 – 2019 Opens

Kristyn Damadeo — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 19:43:19 +0000

The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) is sponsoring the University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs for U.S.-based undergraduate and/or graduate students to design innovative solutions that address airport issues and constraints to enhance the management, safety, capacity and efficiency of the nation’s airports.

Winning design proposals receive cash awards, and first place winners present their work at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and at a professional conference relating to their work. The competition also provides students with exposure to aviation and airport-related careers.

Students are invited to propose design solutions addressing airport needs in the following broad challenge areas:

Airport Operation and Maintenance
Runway Safety/Runway Incursions/Runway Excursions
Airport Environmental Interactions
Airport Management and Planning

Follow the design submission guidelines prior to submitting an entry. Design submissions will be accepted from November 2, 2018 through April 29, 2019.

Guidelines for the 2018 – 2019 academic year competition are available at .

Additional information about the program can be found at .

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