Lone Star College-CyFair Honors Engineering Team Calypso wrapped up a year of multiple category wins in the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge (TSGC) with the 1st-place overall Top Design Team at the Spring 2021 showcase.
“Team Calypso is a self-driven team that has thrived in a difficult, COVID-impacted academic year,” said Dr. Yiheng Wang, professor and team advisor. “This semester the team has been mostly self-directed, and all members worked together beautifully to produce high-quality work. It does not surprise me that they won 1st place in the spring showcase!”
Competing against primarily 4-year university teams, Team Calypso’s spacesuit quick release system design also garnered a 1st-place in Best Poster and 4th-place in Best Video Presentation.
The wins began at the Fall 2020 TSGC showcase when veteran team member Xavier Shockney helped Kyle Randall lead the team to a 2nd-place overall Top Design Team and 1st-place in Best Peer Review. Dr. Wang said this spring, two freshman students, Alma Gallardo Campa and Minh Thu Nguyen, rose to the occasion and took over the team’s leading roles. She said, the fifth member, freshman John Lentz was indispensable throughout the year, especially with his strong technical skills.
“Our fall and spring challenge wins are the result of all the hard-work that we put into this project,” said Gallardo, spring team lead. “The wins make us reflect on the strong team connection that we were able to form and the important role that each member had to complete this challenge.”
Gallardo said she personally gained knowledge from using CAD software to developing important leadership and communication skills.
“This (TSGC Design Challenge) experience not only allowed me to have hands-on experience in the engineering design process, but it also showed me how to achieve an effective group dynamic,” she said.
In addition to the TSGC Design Challenge, Dr. Wang was advisor to a primarily non-US citizen student design team that participated in the inaugural NASA Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Innovative New Designs for Space (MINDS) Design Challenge. Team CIDA won a 3rd-place $750 cash prize with their Underclassman Teams: Overall Design, Build and Demonstration Award.
For information on being part of LSC-CyFair’s NASA design challenge teams, email Yiheng.Wang@LoneStar.edu. For information on LSC-CyFair's Engineering Program, email Cy-FairEngineering@LoneStar.edu. For registration information on summer and fall semester classes, go to LoneStar.edu/regcyfair.
