Potato Challenge

Neutral Buoyancy Lab

6.2mil gal pool (fill 9 Olympic swimming pools) where astronauts train for EVAs.

Duluth Budgeteer News shares my NASA experience. Photo and article by Ellie French: http://www.duluthbudgeteer.com/news/3827414-it-rocket-science

Robots Storm the Castle

After a year of watching robots playing forklift simulator in the FIRST Robotics 2015 game Recycle Rush FIRST has raised the bar with their new game Stronghold. Alliances will work to take over the opposing team’s castle with Medieval flair. Robots must break through opposing alliance’s defenses, launch boulders to weaken the castle, and climb its walls to claim it as there own. A unique aspect of this game is the modularity of the defenses. Outer barriers that the robots will be navigating through can be swapped between matches with the choice of a portcullis (gateway to be lifted up), Cheval de Frise (teeter totter), moat, rampart (opposing steel ramps), drawbridge, Sally Port, rock wall, rough terrain, low bar and platforms. Five of these defenses assigned with obscure french names will be picked before each match. For the first time in FIRST Robotics history there will be audience participation enabling spectators to choose one of the defenses. There are 10,000 different field combinations!

Creativity of Stronghold was manifested from FIRST’s new partnership with Disney Imagineers. They collaborated to carry the season’s Medieval theme through the game’s decorative field pieces and motivating the teams to create a standard, a sort of battle flag. Ample Monty Python and the Holy Grail references were scattered though out the Kick Off broadcast from FIRST Headquarters. I am suspicious that the Stronghold theme was solely conceived for that reason. The trailer like game hint was created to capture interest of folks outside of the FIRST world instead of “in joke” game hints like this. It seems FIRST will continue to release game hints with this a mobile game aesthetic style in future years revealing the years’ theme.

Already most teams have brainstormed a design and a strategy. A group called Ri3D (Robot in Three Days) has already built a fully functional robot. This robot can complete in every aspect of the game proving from my perspective to be worthy of a regional competition win. The idea of building a competitive robot in three days must give rookies teams hope.  Check out Ri3D’s final product: https://youtu.be/Kd1FaSNoDiM

This season my hands are off the robot and on the computer as a project mentor helping students write newspaper articles covering the build season and competition. Check out earlier publications by our group BlueDevil Press and online here.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If you are a strategy engineering feel you may enjoy reading the Stronghold game manual:

https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2016manuals/GameManual/2016GameManual-Full-20160112.pdf

Mentor a team or volunteer at a regional event: http://www.firstinspires.org/ways-to-help/volunteer

Find a local robotics team to donate to. Often local teams will have their own website with instructions on how to donate/ where to send a check to: http://www.firstinspires.org/find-local-support

Check out my old robotics team the Duluth East Daredevils: http://www.daredevils2512.org/

A journal book I covered in little black star drawings

It's Small Business Saturday folks! Did you know that NASA collaborates with SmallBiz on extraterrestrial projects? This summer I worked on a NASA small business project, innovating ways to create energy on Mars! I have also sat in on two SmallBiz design proposals and was blown away by the ideas for deep space travel, energy creation and resource utilization. Despite my Black Friday all-nighter I have kicked off today having breakfast at a local joint. Take time today to support SmallBiz and learn about SmallBiz projects with NASA... SmallBiz Mars Humidity Sensor Project: http://kirsikuutti.blogspot.com/2016/08/sensing-mars-nasa-co-op-2-week-nine.html NASA SmallBiz success story: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/bridging-the-valley-of-death/ SmallBiz on Space Station: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/starting-small-to-develop-big-ideas/ SmallBiz deals in Duluth,MN: http://downtownduluth.com/df-data/files/SBS-2016.pdf Find NASA SmallBiz Partners:https://ehb8.gsfc.nasa.gov/sbir/public/technologySearch/searchAction.do?requestFrom=NASASBIRHome

Falcon 9 Sticks the Landing

Game changing launch of Iridium Next mission, Land of Falcon 9 first stage landing and deployment of 10 satellites in low earth orbit by SpaceX. These satellites will provide important data to first responders on Earth. The first stage landing was captured entirely by the Falcon 9's point of view. First launch following SpaceX's 2016 explosion. SpaceX worked with NASA, Airforce and other groups to identify the cause and find a solution. The 2016 was caused by carbon dioxide build up between stage 2's layer of aluminum and carbon fiber wrap.

Stage one successfully lands on barge named “Just Read the Instructions”.

Stage carrying the Iridium Next satellites glows red.

Liftoff with critical small one minute launch window.

Falcon 9′s fins adjust for landing on sea barge. 

How easy would it be for someone to get an internship at NASA, or what would be some typical requirements? I'm only a high school student in engineering and want to know what paths would be really... appreciated I guess? Thx, and love your blog!

Are there any NASA internship requirements...Your typical semester long internship requirements (for a summer, spring or fall opportunity) include a GPA of at least 3.0 and simply a passion for NASA! You don't need to necessarily study in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) disciplines. Some current interns are graphic designers, educators or business majors. NASA accepts high school students to participate in their program too. My first NASA experience was at Glenn Research Center the summer after my senior year. NASA does like to hear about any hands on work you have done, how you have been a leader and future aspirations. You can apply for a semester long internship here: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/students/login/The NASA Pathways Internship (this program is more commonly known as a Co-Op) has a few different requirements and the program is different itself. Unlike an internship a Co-Op makes a many semester long commitment to you. For example I flip-flop between working at NASA and studying at school. I will work at NASA five times before graduating. If you complete this program successfully you have the opportunity to apply for full time jobs at NASA. The program requirements include being a current student at an ABET accredited university and participating in an accepted major (details on that in the Co-Op application sites) like engineering or business, having at least a 2.9 GPA, and being able to work at NASA three times before your graduate. The current Pathways Internship (Co-Op) openings are here: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htmYou apply for the Co-Op by making a resume (mine was just bellow 20,000 characters) on USAJobs.gov. Opportunities open up as the year rolls along for fall and spring opportunities. Thanks for the question!

Get Hooked on Programming Quick

Highly sought for and praised- the ability to program. Admit it, being comfortable with technology makes you an admirable candidate for your dream job and allows you to navigate the modern world more fluidly. Unfortunately the idea of becoming tech savvy was soiled by the thought of dry lingo and geeky stereotype. For the tech enthused or not, young or wise I have seven ways you can get started with programming in a few hours or much less. (In order of what I thought of first)

1) Codecademy

Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond

Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish

Languages: Web development, Ruby, Python, PHP

Where: http://www.codecademy.com/learn

Friends from internships used codecademy to get exposed to a number of languages relatively quickly and from there decided what to dive into.

2) Code.org

Best for: Elementary - High School

Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish

Languages: Java Script, HTML, basic logic, Lego Robotics, and more

Where: http://code.org/

A really fun way to learn programming by playing games or making your own! President Obama was visited by some aspiring programmers and completed a Disney Frozen themed project.

3) Alice

Best for: Elementary - High School

Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish

Languages: Java

Where: http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice3.1

(Younger programmers may need help downloading and getting started)

Alice allows you to program in pseudo Java code and control characters. You can make movies or perform skits with your characters by moving blocks of code around and assigning values. This was my first exposure to programming in high school. As I continued with my computer studies in college found that what I learned from Alice to be extremely useful.

4) Java Seal

Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond

Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish

Languages: Java

Where: https://www.youtube.com/user/JavaSeal

This is my shameless plug; I started this You Tube channel this past summer and recorded some videos about how to get started with Java programming, a basic 10 minute starter program, and a 30min more complex program. Although I haven't downloaded videos recently these are a good start and I expect to make more this summer.

5) Made With Code

Best for: Elementary - Middle School

Project Time: 5min - As long as you wish

Languages: Basic Logic

Where: https://www.madewithcode.com/projects

My Mom's kindergarten class loved to make a Yeti dance and lights shimmer using the Made With Code project. I visited her classroom and had students drag and drop blocks of code on a Smart Board. These projects teach about basic programming logic and assigning values to variables.

6) Khan Academy

Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond

Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish

Languages: Game, Animation, Web Development

Where: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Khan Academy has great videos for every subject imaginable in school and now for programming. There are many projects where you can make video games, a website, or animation. There is even a gallery of what other programmers have made while following along with the video.

7) Major League Hacking

Best for: High School - College

Project Time: Few hours to 3 day event

Languages: Any language! Common ones include C++ and Java

Where: Select Colleges https://mlh.io/seasons/f2014/events

This isn't a website to visit but a Hackathon event to go to! Hackathons are events where students are challenged to create a solution to a problem such as an app that can send you texts to keep you on task, a light that can let you know when you need to wear warm clothes, or the next big social media hot spot. Hackathons can run for a few hours to three days. Most of the Hackathons don't require programming experience and are a great place to learn.

(These age groups are just suggestions, feel free to check out any of them you like. I didn't make any of the logos except my Java Seal one so kudos to you other logo makers.)

Historic Mission Control

Flew humans to the Moon with less computing power than your smart phone.

Looking Forward to Grace Hopper 2015

Unsure of whether to call it the Grace Hopper Conference or Celebration I’m going to postulate that it is both. Grace Hopper Celebration of  Women in Computing (GHC) is a collection of conferences where computer scientists can learn about the latest technology, participate in tech workshops, network and build soft skills. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery initiated GHC named after the computer scientist Grace Hopper. Hopper coined the term debugging, after picking bugs out of her computer and invented the first compiler, allowing programming languages to be more human-like.

Aspiring or seasoned computer scientist GHC sounds like the place to be, described by my peers in NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology). In high school I became one of NCWIT’s MN State Affiliate Aspiration in Computing Award winners and since then have heard of networking stories, tales of learning experience and good times from GHC goers.

As a current Co-Op at NASA’s Johnson Space Center I have been sent on a mission to learn as much as I can and share with my department how these acquired skills will help them. As an NCWITer I will be able to connect with other like-minded women and attend their networking events. I have been browsing through the conference schedule and crafted a comprehensive itinerary filled with keynote presentations, professional development, and hands on tech projects.

Sessions on my itinerary I am most excited for include “Communicating for Impact and Influence”, “Design and Development Considerations in Serious Games”, “Bank of America Technical Women Luncheon”, “Speed Mentoring Breakfast with Microsoft”, and “Data Science: NASA”.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

I will be live tweeting and live blogging the event

Check out this year’s sessions and think about joining in next year

Watch keynotes from past events