BlackboardNASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program
Three undergraduates at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have been chosen to participate in NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program this summer.
Gilbert Schroeder, a junior in Chemical Engineering, John Davis, a junior in Electrical Engineering, and Tasos Tsangarides, a senior in Electrical Engineering, members of the Micro-Gravity Biomagnetic Research Team at the College, were selected on the basis of their proposal "A Study of the Growth Response of Yeast Cultures Exposed to Magnetic Fields in Micro-Gravity Conditions."
The proposed research is an extension of work performed in the Biomagnetic Engineering Laboratory at the College and seeks to determine whether magnetic effects on yeast fermentation observed in Earth's gravity would be modified by being conducted in t he microgravity environment of a space vehicle. These results could be important for yeast utilization on interplanetary space missions, for various earth-based industries utilizing yeast as an ingredient in their manufacturing processes (for example: al cohol fermentation, drug development, etc.), and lead to a better understanding of the mechanism involved in growth stimulation.
The Biomagnetic Engineering Laboratory is directed by Dean C.-J. Chen, and the proposed project will be supervised by Dr. Vinay Pai and Dr. Yousef Haik. The Flight Opportunities Program is sponsored jointly by NASA and the Texas Space Grant Consortium.
The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering partners with NASA in other areas as well, most notably in the establishment of a Challenger Learning Center at the College, slated to open in 2001. Dr. Norman Thagard, a retired NASA Astronaut and now Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of College Relations, has been instrumental in promoting these relationships.
