On Friday, April 18, 2014 the California Space Grant Consortium (CaSGC) held its Southern California affiliate meeting at University of California, Los Angeles. The meeting was attended by staff from NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, affiliates, partners, and students from the Los Angeles metropolitan area, San Diego, and Sacramento, and CaSGC Headquarters staff.

Francisco Pena of NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly designated NASA Dryden Flight Research Center) and Linda Rodgers of NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided an update on research and educational activities taking place at both centers and opportunities for high school, community college, undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research at the centers under NASA mentors. CaSGC Headquarters Staff (John Kosmatka and Tehseen Lazzouni) provided an overview of the State of the Consortium and a summary of Consortium-wide Accomplishments, and there were several presentations by affiliates and students including:

• Precollege: Programs to Bring Students from Underrepresented Backgrounds to the STEM Pipeline, by Lily Gossage of Cal Poly Pomona
• Research Infrastructure: NASA Dawn Mission, by Christopher Russell
• Higher Education: San Diego MESA Alliance Research Academy & Mentoring Chain, by Gustaaf Jacobs, Daniel Nelson, and Sean Davis of San Diego State University and Rafael Alvarez of San Diego City College.
• Precollege & Public Outreach: Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, by Marianna O’Brien of Lincoln Middle School.

A student poster session was also held:

• Fadi Bakour & Dean Coco, Citrus College: “Project Lambda”
• Prasong Mahachitsattaya & Michael Fernandez, Los Angeles City College: “Development of an Arduino Based Portable Data Logger for Recording: Heart Rate, GPS Coordinates and Acceleration of a Human Subject”
• Elizabeth Palmer, UC Los Angeles: “Dielectric Properties of the Surface of Asteroid Vesta From Dawn VIR Thermal Observations”
• Marlene Patino, UC Los Angeles: “Characterization of Ion-Neutral Collisions for Electric Propulsion Devices”
• Ron Powell, UC Los Angeles: “One-dimensional Hybrid Simulations of Ion Cyclotron Waves from the Enceladus Plume”
• Michaela Villareal, UC Los Angeles: “Characterizing the Low Altitude Magnetic Belt at Venus”
• Benjamin Martins, UC San Diego: “Active Flight Load Alleviation Using Segmented Trailing Edge Wings on a Small UAS”
• Elizabeth Koltz, University of Southern California: “The Reinventing Space Project: Performance Based Cost Modeling”

There was a discussion of upcoming proposals and consortium activities and the meeting ended with an exciting Arduino Workshop run by Phuong Truong of UC San Diego.

We are grateful to our NASA colleagues and all the affiliates, partners, and students who took the time to be a part of this meeting. We look forward to new collaborations and programs to better serve students in the State of California and the Nation.

Photos from the Meeting:

Welcome and Introductions: John Kosmatka, CaSGC Director with Chris Russell, UCLA Campus Affiliate & Meeting Host

Rebecca Howard, CaSGC Program Coordinator

Francisco Pena, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Linda Rodgers, NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

John Kosmatka, CaSGC Director

Tehseen Lazzouni, CaSGC Assistant Director

Tehseen Lazzouni, CaSGC, with David Atkinson, NASA / JPL & University of Idaho

Lucia Riderer, Citrus College, with Chris Russell, UC Los Angeles

Working Lunch

Tehseen Lazzouni, CaSGC, with Jayesh Bhakta, Los Angeles City College

NASA Dawn Presentation by Chris Russell, UC Los Angeles

NASA Dawn Presentation by Chris Russell, UC Los Angeles

Gustaaf Jacobs, San Diego State University

Rafael Alvarez, San Diego City College

Marianna O'Brien, Lincoln Middle School

Poster Session--Michaela Villareal (UCLA), Tehseen Lazzouni (CaSGC), Gustaaf Jacobs (SDSU)

Poster Session--Elizabeth Koltz (USC)

Poster Session--Michael Fernandez and Prasong Mahachitsattaya (Los Angeles City College)

Poster Session--John Kosmatka (CaSGC), Fadi Bakour and Dean Coco (Citrus College)

Poster Session--Lucia Riderer, Fadi Bakour & Dean Coco (Citrus College) with Gustaaf Jacobs & Sean Davis (SDSU)

Jose Granda (CSU Sacramento)

Arduino Presentation: Phuong Truong (UC San Diego)

Arduino Presentation: Phuong Truong, UC San Diego (top right corner of photo)

Arduino Workshop

Arduino Workshop

Arduino Workshop--Ben Martins (UCSD), Lily Gossage & Don Edberg (Cal Poly Pomona), Phuong Truong (UCSD)

Arduino Workshop

Arduino Workshop--Don Edberg (Cal Poly Pomona), Phuong Truong (UCSD)

Arduino Connected to Laptop and Breadboard

Gamer Kesheshe (UCSD) and Jose Granda (CSU Sacramento)

John Kosmatka, Gamer Kesheshe, and Tehseen Lazzouni (UCSD/CaSGC)

John Kosmatka (CaSGC), Jose Granda (CSU Sacramento), and Tehseen Lazzouni (CaSGC)

Meeting Presentation by CaSGC Headquarters (John Kosmatka and Tehseen Lazzouni):

State of the Consortium, John Kosmatka (please click here)

Consortium-Wide Accomplishments & Activities, Tehseen Lazzouni (please click here)

Meeting Participants:

Azusa Pacific University

• Leslie Wickman (via telephone)

Cal Poly Pomona

• Don Edberg
• Lily Gossage

California Space Grant Consortium Headquarters / UC San Diego:

• John Kosmatka
• Tehseen Lazzouni
• Rebecca Howard

Citrus College

• Lucia Riderer
• Dean Coco
• Fadi Bakour

CSU Sacramento

• Jose Granda

CSU San Bernardino

• Laura Woodney (via telephone)

Lincoln Middle School

• Marianna O’Brien

Los Angeles City College

• Jayesh Bhakta
• Prasong Mahachitsattaya
• Michael Fernandez

NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center:

• Francisco Pena

NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

• Linda Rodgers
• David Atkinson (joint affiliation with University of Idaho)

San Diego City College

• Rafael Alvarez

San Diego State University

• Gustaaf Jacobs
• Daniel Nelson
• Sean Davis

UC Los Angeles:

• Christopher Russell
• Vassilis Angelopoulos
• Marlene Patino
• Michaela Villarreal
• Elizabeth Palmer
• Ronald Powell

UC Santa Barbara

• Phil Lubin (via telephone)

University of Southern California

• James Wertz (joint affiliation with Microcosm)
• Elizabeth Koltz

UC San Diego

• Benjamin Martins
• Gamer Kesheshe
• Phuong Truong