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Rice Winners in the
Texas Space
Grant Consortium Design Challenge
with Cain Competition Coaching
Julia Amborski
In Dr. Maria Oden’s BIOE 452 class, senior bioengineer-ing
students design, develop, and test devices in biotechnology or biomedicine.
This year, two groups from this course took their projects one step
further by participating in the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design
Challenge. Representing Rice in the Consortium Challenge were Team
Cobra and the Space Owls.
According to Dr. Oden, participation in the program is voluntary
and requires “extra work, effort, reports, presentations and
deadlines.” The hard work paid off, though. In Fall 2004, Team
Cobra was presented with six awards for excellence in participation
and the Space Owls were presented with three. In Spring 2005, six
official awards and eight additional “fun” awards were
given. The Rice teams took first place in all six of the official
awards and five of the eight additional awards.
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“[The Rice teams’]
ability to communicate their research clearly, confidently,
and expertly to the audience made a lasting, positive
impression. Without a doubt, each team’s communication
skills had an enormous impact on how well their projects
were received by NASA researchers, representatives from
Texas institutions, and peers in attendance.”
– Debbie Mullins
Program Coordinator, TSGC Design Challenge
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Team Cobra (left to right): Austin
Elam, Christopher Gibson, Thomas Rooney, Roland Robb,
Zeyad Netwalli
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Team Cobra Leader: Christopher Gibson
Christopher Gibson, team leader of Team Cobra who is
pursuing a BS in BIOE as well as a BA in the MANA honors
program, was first introduced to the Cain Project his
freshman year in honors chemistry and has been further
exposed to the Project’s resources in several
of his BIOE courses.
While working for a biotech start-up company this past
summer, Christopher was asked to create company presentations
in PowerPoint as well as to represent the company by
presenting its business plan to two well-known venture
capitalists. He feels that his skills learned through
the Cain Project as well as his Rice undergrad experience
in general will be “supremely beneficial” in
his years after graduation.
To meet the rest of Team Cobra, go to http://www.riceteamcobra.com/team.htm.
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Space Challenge
The Texas Space Grant Consortium Challenge is described as “a unique academic
experience designed to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to
propose, design, and fabricate a solution to a topic of importance to NASA and
its mission.” In this semester’s challenge, 16 teams represented
seven Texas universities.
Each team selected a project from a list of topics submitted by NASA researchers
or its contractors. Both Rice teams selected the same challenge: Countermeasures
for Bone and Muscle Loss in Orbit. Along with their Rice faculty advisors, Dr.
Michael Liebschner and Dr. Maria Oden, both teams had the guidance of Tara Ruttley,
a Johnson Space Center Biomedical Systems Division researcher. |
