STEM

Mason ECE graduate student gets SMART

Rena Malai — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 17:00:59 +0000

Mason ECE graduate student gets SMART Rena Malai Tue, 07/05/2022 - 13:00

Getting a Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship isn’t easy, but it’s a gainful step toward building a career of growth, enrichment, and opportunities within the U.S. government.

Sabrina Stenberg sees the SMART scholarship as a way to maximize her graduate studies at George Mason while remaining employed as a chemical engineer with the Department of Defense (DoD). Through the scholarship, Stenberg can focus on her master of science in electrical engineering at Mason full-time.

Stenberg says the scholarship is funded by DoD with the aim of attracting and retaining people into STEM careers at the government level.

“I am really happy to win this scholarship,” says Stenberg. “This way I can finish in three more semesters and make the most of the experience, connecting with other students and my professors.”

Stenberg, a Northern Virginia native, says the scholarship is not a one stop source of money. Rather, it requires commitment and accountability so anyone thinking of applying should be prepared.

“People should be mindful that this scholarship does have conditions,” says Stenberg. “You will be expected to commit to your program of study, keep up your grades, and agree to fulfill the one-to-one scholarship for service time commitment with DoD for every year of funded study. Any withdrawals can result in penalties, like paying back your tuition.”

She feels the conditions are worth it, as it will open up the doors to plenty of great job opportunities.

“In my current job, I became more interested in electronics and I decided to combine that interest by studying control and robotics,” says Stenberg. “It’s a valuable area to learn about as there are a lot of autonomous systems within the military.”

Although Stenberg was already employed by DoD, anyone interested in SMART does not have to be employed before applying. Potential applicants do need to be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, have a high GPA, and be able to accept employment with DoD after graduating.

The SMART program, part of the DoD science, technology, engineering, and mathematics portfolio provides STEM students with the tools needed to pursue higher education and begin a rewarding career with the DoD. Scholarship winners can receive full tuition as well as a stipend and full-time employment after graduation.

Topics

STEM

scholarship

diversity

Electrical Engineering

robotics and autonomous systems

Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center

STEM summer camps spark student collaboration

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 16:22:09 +0000

STEM summer camps spark student collaboration 4429684e-ae8d-… Fri, 07/12/2019 - 12:22

Students (from front left to front right) Veronika Shcherbynina, Riley Blackburn, Nathan Madden, Caleb Faulkerson, and Elyssia Brown use common household items like cardboard, hot glue, and tape to test their water-proofing skills and learn about civil engineering concepts. Photo by Ryley McGinnis.

Tinfoil and hot glue aren’t what most people would use to waterproof their houses, but for the middle school to high school-aged campers participating in the Volgenau School of Engineering’s STEM Summer Camps, these are some of the tools they used to learn the basics of civil engineering.

The camps started July 8 and continue through August 9. Each week focuses on different areas in engineering, computer science, big data, and more. Mason Engineering students are on hand to lend a hand and help the campers with their projects.

“We have 120 students enrolled in our STEM summer camps this year,” says Kammy Sanghera, STEM outreach director for Mason Engineering. “The students enjoy hands-on activities and being at our state-of-the-art facility. They are eager to learn what they could do with the concepts and tools they learn from us.”

“A lot of young kids don’t want anything to do with science or math, but this shows them that civil engineering is more than crunching numbers, that bioengineering can save lives, that with computer engineering you can build computers, and so much more,” Ayeni says. “That knowledge has value.”

Ephraim Ayeni, electrical engineering student

In the first week of the camps, the campers learned fundamentals of four areas of engineering from Mason Engineering students in their respective majors: electrical, civil, mechanical, and bioengineering.

After that first week, campers can expand their knowledge of specific topics, such as networking, cybersecurity, big data, with different camps through the remainder of the summer.

“Students are coming here as part of their decision-making process, so we make the camps hands-on to give them a brief overview of what engineering does to help them figure out what interests them,” says Bhargavi Mavintop, a computer science graduate teaching assistant and a camp coordinator.

Mason Engineering students start by teaching the participants the basics of each field and expanding to more difficult topics, which allows the campers to be very specialized.

“I do appreciate that Mason is making this available and making it specific so that they get full exposure to the different areas of engineering,” says Mason junior Ephraim Ayeni, one of the instructors for the electrical engineering section of the camps.

Ayeni and his fellow instructor, Aaron Suresh, a junior studying electrical engineering, began their undergraduate careers as computer engineering majors, but both later realized that their perception of computer engineering was much different than reality and that they enjoyed electrical engineering more.

They hope these camps not only expose students to engineering but show them the path they want to take.

“I wish I had this exposure earlier in my life, maybe my experience would’ve been different,” says Ayeni. “Exposing them to different types of fields shows them the type of engineering that is meant for them.”

While these campers are learning new technical skills, both Ayeni and Suresh emphasized that they are trying to also teach them problem-solving strategies, and how to work with other people.

“My least favorite part is watching kids get frustrated and quit,” Suresh says. “It’s okay if it’s hard, but when you just sit there and let your partner do everything you won’t learn anything.”

Ayeni and Suresh tried to promote teamwork by actively encouraging participants to talk to one another, which they hoped would lead to more perseverance in understanding the skills themselves if they had a partner to help them.

“These kids are so lucky, they are growing up in an age where technology is so convenient and they shouldn’t take it for granted,” Ayeni says.

Ayeni and Suresh, along with the other instructors for these camps, hope that teaching the campers about their fields will show them what engineering has to offer and hopefully will draw more young minds into the ever-growing field.

“A lot of young kids don’t want anything to do with science or math, but this shows them that civil engineering is more than crunching numbers, that bioengineering can save lives, that with computer engineering you can build computers, and so much more,” Ayeni says. “That knowledge has value.”

Mason’s Rocketry Club soars at competition

284b32ef-f5e4-49b3-b958-e02a665d1125 (Nanci Hellmich) — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 19:08:55 +0000

Mason’s Rocketry Club soars at competition 284b32ef-f5e4-… Fri, 04/19/2019 - 15:08

Mason's Rocketry Club landed two first place awards in the Battle of the Rockets Competition. Pictured from left to right: Alex Maxseiner, Joe Coffin, Peter Goffe, Will McCarty, Eric Dau, Gary Quaresima, and Zac Yarashus.

Mason’s Rocketry Club captured first place awards in the target altitude event and the Mars rover challenge at the Battle of the Rockets Competition.

This is the second year the group won first place in the target altitude event.

Students from several engineering disciplines teamed up to make the rockets and rover, says Alex Maxseiner, president and founder of the club and a senior in computer engineering.

“We put in a lot of hard work, especially for the Mars rover (robot) challenge,” says Peter Goffe, the club treasurer and a junior majoring in mechanical engineering.

The target altitude event’s objective was to fly a rocket as close as possible to 1,001 feet. The club got three shots at reaching that goal; scoring is based on their best two attempts. Mason’s team was off by only 26 feet in its best two shots.

“Our new members took what we have learned from our experiences and were able to build a very consistent rocket, improving our score from last year,” Maxseiner says.

For the Mars rover (robot) challenge, the team designed a rocket and put a Mars rover inside. The rocket flew more than 1,000 feet, then deployed the rover, which landed safely using its parachute recovery system.

“It’s a little stressful when you are watching the rocket launch,” Goffe says. “If something malfunctions and falls without its recovery system, it’s unsalvageable for the competition. We focused on completing the simple tasks one hundred percent of the time.”

The club members built three rockets this year, working more than two months on that portion of the project. They had several practice launches before the competition, which was held April 13-14 in Culpeper, Virginia.

Maxseiner founded the club in 2016 because he and his peers wanted to get hands-on experience with their classroom work

Faculty advisor Harold A. Geller, Mason's Observatory director, has mentored the group, which welcomes people from all academic backgrounds. They’re looking for younger students to take over, “because most of us are seniors, and we want the club to live on after we graduate,” Maxseiner says.

Countdown to launch: Engineering students team up to reach the starry heights with a satellite

284b32ef-f5e4-49b3-b958-e02a665d1125 (Nanci Hellmich) — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 12:46:10 +0000

Countdown to launch: Engineering students team up to reach the starry heights with a satellite 284b32ef-f5e4-… Tue, 04/02/2019 - 08:46

"Everyone owned a piece of the project, which helped manage the workload."

— Lena Elhajj, a senior in systems engineering

“The ECE students looked at the project in terms of circuit components. The mechanical engineering seniors considered the materials that are allowed in space, and the systems engineering students were looking at whether the mission meets all the requirements and goals.”

— Hina Fatima, a senior in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

"It takes coordination to do a project this big. Testing is half the project, but it’s hard to believe it until you see it.”

— Matthew Herman, systems engineering senior

“The long-term goal is to engage senior design students in designing their own satellite and their own path to space.”

Peter Pachowicz, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

“We all had different ideas of how things should be laid out. Every time we have a meeting, we worked together and talked through our differences.”

— Brandon Goodrich, a senior in mechanical engineering

Mason Engineering students from three departments worked together on a senior design team to create three experiments that will be sent into the Earth's lower orbit on a small satellite, called a ThinSat. Pictured from left to right: Le Truong, Hina Fatima, Jeremiah Terrie, Alex Mourao, Brandon Goodrich, and Tameem Siddiquee.

Mason Engineering students took a giant leap into complex space-related research this year.

A senior design team with 14 students from three engineering departments worked together all year on three experiments that are being integrated into one small satellite about the size of two smartphones.

The satellite, called a ThinSat, is scheduled to take the science experiments into Earth’s lower orbit next spring on a rocket, whose main mission is to deliver cargo to NASA’s International Space Station. ThinSats piggyback on the cargo mission.

“The students from different disciplines cooperated to design, implement, and test the experiments and then integrated everything into an infrastructure that complies with NASA requirements,” says lead faculty advisor Peter Pachowicz, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Students in the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR) provided the parameters for the designs and helped test the projects after they were created, while seniors in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME) created the hardware and software for the experiments, which include:

A new thermal battery shield to protect a lithium polymer battery from freezing temperatures during an eclipse, designed by the mechanical engineering students.
A method to scan a range of ultra-high radio frequencies used by ham radio to see which are suitable for inexpensive, low-bandwidth satellite communications in the Washington, D.C.-area, a project from the ECE seniors.
A comparison of two solar-powered systems to find out which is more efficient, also from the ECE students.

The students got experience in real-world engineering, says Lance Sherry, an associate professor in systems engineering and operations research. “When we build aircraft or other complex systems, there is never enough time, space, or energy.”

One of the biggest things the students learned in this is how to allocate limited resources to come up with an optimum design given the constraints, he says.

After the ECE and ME seniors built the components of the experiments, they gave them to the system engineering group to integrate into the ThinSat to start testing.

One test included putting the ThinSat onto a vibration table, then shaking the table for a couple of hours to simulate what it’s going to be like when the launch takes place. “It’s a very rough ride,” Sherry says.

Another test put the batteries into an increasing vacuum until they popped. “Better to find out what the limits of the design are in the lab than after it’s launched,” says Lena Elhajj, a systems engineering senior.

Teamwork was essential because complex engineering projects are rarely undertaken outside a multi-disciplinary environment, says Robert Gallo, director of senior projects for mechanical engineering.

Alex Mourao, Brandon Goodrich, and Esteban Perez, members of a senior design team called Asteria, are working on a new thermal battery shield to protect a lithium polymer battery.

Brandon Goodrich, a senior in mechanical engineering who dubbed the team Asteria after a Greek goddess of the stars, says the experience taught him valuable lessons about working with people with diverse design perspectives. “We all had different ideas of how things should be laid out. Every time we have a meeting, we worked together and talked through our differences.”

Hina Fatima, an ECE senior, agrees. “The ECE students looked at the project in terms of circuit components. The mechanical engineering seniors considered the materials that are allowed in space, and the systems engineering students were looking at whether the mission meets all the requirements and goals.”

Everyone owned a piece of the project, which helped manage the workload, Elhajj says.

It takes coordination to do a project this big, adds Matthew Herman, a systems engineering senior. “Testing is half the project, but it’s hard to believe it until you see it.”

Virginia Space and Twiggs Space Lab, the projects’ sponsors, are testing Mason’s ThinSat in a high altitude balloon to make sure everything is launch ready.

Next year, the satellite and other ThinSats are scheduled to launch in a rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia.

Juniors are waiting in the wings to take over the projects, as well as design other experiments for another ThinSat, Pachowicz says.

He has other aspirations for future engineering students. “The long-term goal is to engage senior design students in designing their own satellite and their own path to space.”

“Mason is uniquely positioned to provide students this incredible hands-on learning opportunity in one of the fastest growing engineering fields,” Sherry says.

Let the countdown begin.

The seniors on the team included:

Electrical and Computer Engineering: Hina Fatima (lead) Gabe Haddad, Reagan Gillette, Tameem Siddiquee, Jay Deorukhkar, Jeremiah Terrie, Le Truong.

Mechanical Engineering: Brandon Goodrich (lead), Alex Mourao, Esteban Perez.

Systems Engineering: Lena Elhajj (lead), Matthew Herman (lead), Michael Jordan, Raghad Alahmadi.