Tri-County Stellar Engineering Students Excel in NASA HUNCH Competition and Head to Johnson Space Center

Each year, engineering students, guided by their dedicated instructor Kristen Magas, participate in the prestigious NASA HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware)  Program. This program inspires and empowers high school students through a hands-on, Project-Based Learning approach, equipping them with 21st-century skills and real-world experience in designing and fabricating products for NASA.

This year, twenty-four engineering juniors showcased their talents at the Northeast Regional HUNCH Critical Design Review held at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Presenting their final designs and prototypes to NASA representatives and industry professionals, four of our student teams earned the distinction of being selected as finalists. These exceptional teams have been invited to the HUNCH Final Showcase at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas in April.

During their time in Houston, students will tour the JSC Mission Control Center and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, guided by Tri-County engineering alumnus and current International Space Station flight controller, Ethan Mace. Additionally, they hope to visit the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) facility, where their instructor, Kristen Magas, served as an analog astronaut during a simulated Mars mission this past fall.

Tri-County Stellar Engineering Students Excel in
NASA HUNCH Competition and Head to Johnson Space Center

These engineering students have worked diligently since September to refine their prototypes and implement the engineering design process. They also sought funding from the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, successfully securing grant money to support their travels. Last week, the student groups proudly presented their innovative products to parents and peers, showcasing their expertise, dedication, and creativity.

The students heading to Houston to showcase their projects in the Health & Biomedical Science areas are Sophie Anderson, Colleen Layton, and Rebecca Hall (biodegradable packaging of medications project); Vincenzo Gaybor, Michael Love, Amy Manzanarez, and Adison Sobczak (mental health in space project); Rhys Beck and Bernardo Martinez de Freitas (medical inventory with facial recognition project).

The students heading to Houston to showcase their projects in the Design & Prototyping areas are Riley Heney, Nathan O'Connell, and Kyleigh Weddeke (lunar landing legs project).

This remarkable journey highlights the hard work and achievements of our engineering students and their bright futures in the STEM field.

 

Shared from TCRVTHS -> https://www.tri-county.us/article/2093302

WBZ Radio: Tri-County Students Help NASA Build Space Hardware

In case you missed the piece on the Tri-County students working with the NASA HUNCH program on cable ties for the space shuttle, WBZ did a radio piece of this Tuesday.

The WBZ radio piece ->  https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/franklin-students-help-nasa-build-space-hardware/

The post January 16, 2022 -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/01/tri-county-students-complete-wire-ties.html  

L to R are: Maxwell Rounds (Franklin), Tony Botteri (Walpole), Rick Hamilton (North Attleboro), Stacy Hale (NASA), Tyler McKinnon (Franklin), James Gingras (Millis), Brian Belanger (Plainville)

Tri-County students complete wire ties for NASA HUNCH Program

Tri-County RVTHS’s Engineering majors participate in the HUNCH Designing and Prototyping Competition each year and was proud to have three teams of finalists in 2021. Their hard work and dedication was evident to Stacy Hale, HUNCH Founder, when he selected Tri-County as one of the school’s to participate in a special project, the designing and building of EVA Wire Ties. These wire ties are used on the International Space Station (ISS) when an astronaut goes on a spacewalk for a repair. Wire ties are wrapped around cable bundles used during battery replacements.

Hale visited Tri-County in November of 2019 to work with the students for three days. During this time students learned the specific and critical specifications required for the wire ties and created a computer-aided design (CAD). The students worked alongside Stacy building, inspecting, and performing quality control measures to ensure each piece was the exact size and shape required. 

L to R are: Maxwell Rounds (Franklin), Tony Botteri (Walpole), Rick Hamilton (North Attleboro), Stacy Hale (NASA), Tyler McKinnon (Franklin), James Gingras (Millis), Brian Belanger (Plainville)

Tri-County was one of a handful of schools selected throughout the country to work on this project. Our students from the class of 2021 and 2022 manufactured approximately 250 wire ties using an assembly line process. Most, if not all, are currently being used on the ISS.

Hale returned to Tri-County to have a storage locker used in the ISS signed. The honor is used to recognize the hard work and dedication during the manufacturing. The storage lockers are filled with goods that are being shipped up to the ISS and then used to send refuse back to Earth.

 

• What is NASA HUNCH?  

NASA High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) Program 

The HUNCH mission is to empower and inspire students through a Project Based Learning program where high school students learn 21st century skills and have the opportunity to launch their careers through the participation in the design and fabrication of real world valued products for NASA.  Find out more on the NASA HUNCH web page -> https://nasahunch.com/

Tri-County Students Selected as Finalists in NASA HUNCH Program

The Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School District is pleased to announce all six teams that participated in this year's NASA HUNCH Program were selected as semi-finalists. The NASA HUNCH Program asks vocational students to help solve problems facing astronauts. Each year a set of approximately ten issues are presented in September. Students select the issue they would like to work on and form teams. All juniors in the Engineering Program participate. (www.hunchdesign.com)

The students in the NASA HUNCH Program work with mentors, college professors, national companies, engineers from NASA, and other organizations to help hone their ideas. In addition, each student is encouraged to include their work with NASA on their resume. The students' fresh perspective, time, and energy assists the Research and Integration Office out of the Johnson Space Center.

This year, the students worked to provide a preliminary design review in February. After this review, teams refine their ideas and have a critical design review. Critical Design Review typically takes place in New Jersey but was held remotely this year. The finalists are invited to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, to present to NASA and anyone interested. 

 

This year the students will be presenting virtually but, Kristen Magas, an Engineering Teacher, hopes this will give them a wider audience of people who typically wouldn't be able to attend the presentation in person. "I wish these kids could have the experience of going to Houston to work with NASA, hopefully being recognized and having a chance to present virtually to anyone at Johnson Space Center will be memorable," says Kristen Magas, Engineering Technology Instructor.

The three teams of finalists include:

• Matt Gorton (Seekonk), John Greener (North Attleboro), Rick Hamilton (North Attleboro), Emily Anne Matheson (Medway), Tyler Fiore (North Attleboro), Shriya Sivakumar (Seekonk), Kyle Hughes (North Attleboro) created a No Heat Shield, allowing a package to reenter the atmosphere without burning up safely. In addition, this team was able to work with a local fire department to drop test their prototypes from the top of a fire truck ladder and got licensed as HAM radio operators to test their radio transmitter.
• Owen Fedele (Medway), Lucas Celeste (North Attleboro), Nolan Angliss (Franklin) designed a Lunar Food Bite Dispenser to allow astronauts to eat while on long spacewalks with ease. This trio was selected as finalists last year as well.
• Anthony Botteri (Medway), Max Rounds (Franklin), James Gingras (Millis), Brian Belanger (Plainville), Tyler McKinnon (Franklin) (with help from Elijah DePaolo (North Attleboro) and Eric Conway (Millis) collaborated on the Lunar Dust Baffle to help keep lunar soil on habitats to protect astronauts from radiation and micrometeorites. This team pulled together their various strengths and made an incredible impact.

The teams presented their projects to NASA in late April. Next steps include one team developing their idea or blending ideas to create a solution. Through the HUNCH Program, Tri-County designed hardware for storage lockers used in space by the Advanced Manufacturing students.

 

Lunar Food Bite Dispenser

Lunar Dust Baffle

No Heat Shield