Students
Earn Prestigious NASA Scholarships
Two
Smith College engineers recently won scholarships from the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to pursue
research.
 Geneviève de Mijolla ’13, a
double major in engineering and physics, will receive a one-year
$10,000 scholarship as a NASA MUST Scholar—a scholarship
program focused on encouraging students from underserved
and underrepresented groups to enter science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The Motivating Undergraduates
in Science and Technology (MUST) Program is a joint partnership
between the Hispanic College Fund, the United Negro College
Fund Special Programs and the Society for Hispanic Professional
Engineers.
In addition to the scholarship,
de Mijolla, who is from France, will be eligible for a paid
internship at a NASA center next summer. She and other MUST
scholars will benefit year-round from tutoring, lecture series
and mentoring from STEM faculty and peers.
 was awarded
a fellowship from NASA’s Office of the Chief
Technologist to pursue research into increasing the speed
and power necessary for the next generation of planetary
probes.
The NASA 2011 Space Technology
Research Fellowship will support Tomboulian and her laboratory
work, health insurance, tuition, fees, and an extended visit
to a NASA center to work on the project—a fellowship valued
at as much as $66,000 a year for up to four years.
Now a
graduate student in mechanical and industrial engineering
at the University of Massachusetts, Tomboulian’s work is
aimed at developing a spacecraft with a high-speed in-space
propulsion system that could reach a destination such as
Mars in a matter of weeks instead of years.
“Launching a spacecraft is very costly and the expense is directly related
to the mass of the vehicle,” Tomboulian wrote in her proposal to NASA. “The
heat rejection system, or radiator, of a spacecraft with a nuclear-electric
propulsion system accounts for up to 40 percent of the total mass. Lightweight
radiators are necessary to achieve NASA’s affordable and efficient space travel
goals.”
The goal of the Space Technology
Research Fellowships is to provide the nation with a pipeline
of highly skilled engineers and technologists to improve
America's technological competitiveness. |
