Space Grant Projects

AZ Space Grant Research interns come from all colleges at the Prescott Campus and work on a diversity of aspects that align with and move NASA's mission — "Drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth" — forward.

Here, Space Grant Research interns share their research stories:

This project identifies methods to increase the number of female students retained in engineering programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The project accomplished this using previous research in the field combined with data gathered from interviews that were conducted with female students in an Introduction to Engineering course. The collected interview data was analyzed with cutting-edge methods from the field of technical communication to design an educational intervention that would alleviate issues faced by marginalized students to contribute toward increased retention rates in engineering programs. The intervention produced results that showed a positive trend between intentional team placement and a sense of belonging for women in engineering programs.

This project studies the asteroid 99942 Apophis and its threat towards Earth. The project quantitatively examines the effectiveness of performing a kinematic impact maneuver on the asteroid during a close Earth approach in 2029.

Carly VeNard