A weekend of ample research and little sleep at ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ Stateβs National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) resulted in the selection of three NASA Space Apps Hackathon winners.
One-man team Just Jacob, led by Jacob Workentine, a ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ State senior in communication, took first place for his submission to the On the Way to the Sun challenge.
Workentine developed an illustrated childrenβs book and . The book and video focused on the story of the Parker Solar Probeβs record-breaking mission from Earth through the Sunβs upper atmosphere to sample particles and magnetic fields.
βAs the only non-STEM major in the competition and the only team of one, it kind of felt like the odds were stacked against me,β Workentine said. βIβm still in disbelief about this weekend and canβt wait to see where this idea will lead me.β
The second place team, Space Jam, developed an app called Surreal that uses NASA data to illustrate the correlation between climate change and natural disasters. . Space Jam team members include Grant Johnson, Murphy Ownbey, Greg Heiman, Akim Niyonzima, Dimitri Seneviratne and Fernando Rubio Garcia.
Heiman, Ownbey, Niyonzima and Seneviratne are ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ State seniors in engineering. Garcia is pursuing his Ph.D. in applied mathematics and Johnson is project manager for Invista.
The third place team of WSU engineering students Ami Goto, Kazune Tazawa, Aoi Ito, Fransiera Maldonado Mundo and Kubeshavarsha Kalithasan, .
The challenge was open to the community including all ages, backgrounds and skill levels. All teams used NASAβs open-source data to complete their project solutions.
The event was hosted by NIARβs Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems Oct. 1-2.
βWe hosted the challenge to provide an opportunity to put the talent of ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ns on the map in a global challenge,β said Waruna Seneviratne, research scientist and director of NIAR ATLAS. βIt was a fun and challenging experience for all involved, and we hope to build a bigger and better Space Apps hackathon for ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ next year.β
The first and second place teams received $500 and a trip to visit Dassault SystΓ¨mes, a sponsor of the ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ Space Apps competition. Additional sponsors included NIAR ATLAS and Solvay. These sponsors helped fund program materials, meals and additional prizes for the participants.