OHIO students receive top honors at Ohio Space Grant Consortium Student Symposium

Two ��ϳԹ� students were honored for their research excellence at the Ohio Space Grant Consortium Student Symposium during the spring semester.

Kavanaugh Frank, who is majoring in computer sciences and conducting research with Dr. Chad Mourning, and Nathan Smith, who is majoring in field ecology and conducting research with Dr. Sarah Wyatt, shared the joint first place presentation award with two other undergraduates from universities in Ohio.

At the , undergraduate and graduate students presented the research they accomplished during the preceding academic year and discussed their research projects with faculty, students and other attendees.

This year’s symposium highlighted outstanding research projects from undergraduate and graduate students from across the state, highlighted by the work for Frank, Smith and the other first place winners.

According to Tim Hale, program manager from the , “This was an unprecedented four-way tie for the STEM poster presentations.” The annual OSGC Conference was held at the Ohio Aerospace Institute Headquarters in Cleveland.

��ϳԹ� is a partner institution of the OSGC, which is composed of 24 institutions of higher learning, the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), the Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL), and various education outreach partners.

OSGC’s mission is to provide opportunities for Ohio students to engage in NASA Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related research, education, and public service programs to foster a diverse, well-prepared, future technical workforce for NASA and the Nation. As part of their portfolio, OSGC grants research scholarships/fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students.

Researching airplane safety, feasibility of growing food in space

Kavanaugh ‘s research seeks to ensure the safety of planes and passengers by developing software to integrate existing Digital Elevation Models from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) into two existing flight modeling programs.

Smith’s research examines the feasibility of growing food in space through understanding the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria and plants using the model bacteria, Sphingomonas sanguinis, and the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.

saac Whipkey, Caleb Keichel, Kavanaugh Frank, Davin Dillon and Michael Tan — Isaac Whipkey, Kaleb Keichel, Kavanaugh Frank, Davin Dillon, and Michael Tan at the OSGC conference. Photo credit: Chad Mourning

Both Kavanaugh and Nathan received OSGC undergraduate scholarships in 2024, along with these OHIO students:

Elyse Hensley (major: biological sciences; Mentor Dr. Sarah Wyatt)
Kaleb Keichel (major: computer science; mentor: Dr. Jundong Liu)
Michael Tan (major: computer science; mentor: Dr. Jundong Liu)
Isaac Whipkey (major: electrical engineering; mentor: Dr. Sabrina Ugazio)

In addition, these two OHIO graduate students received graduate research fellowships:

Davin Dillon (major: electrical engineering and computer science; mentor: Dr. Jundong Liu)
Justin Murray (major: computer Science; mentor: Dr. Chad Mourning) received graduate research fellowships.

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