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6. Spring20.0.8
While college students enjoyed the beaches of South Padre
Island, Texas, this spring several Nebraska Engineering
students were far above—flying with NASA missions over the
Gulf of Mexico and having the time of their lives.
Spring Break
by Carole Wilbeck
It was a first for Nebraska
Engineering: in April 2008 a
team of UNL students conducted
research aboard high-altitude,
reduced gravity NASA flights from
Ellington Field in Houston.
The UNL group—mostly seniors and representing
electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering—
included Stephen Brogan and Olga Dzenis,
both of Lincoln; Lee Redden, Kearney; Dustin
Dam, Sidney; Dana Valish, Columbus; and Tyler
Goldberg of Alexandria, Minn.
Several well-regarded engineering schools
participate each year with NASA research
programs. Dam and Brogan both had co-op
experiences with NASA and gathered a UNL group
to apply to NASA’s “Microgravity University” in the
fall of 2007. The UNL team was placed with a study
of the “effects of 0G and 1/6G on Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) data accuracy.”
All winter they prepared their test materials and
procedures: RFID tags, reader and specially fitted
container, as well as supply items to test, from
toothpaste to t-shirts. With Erick Jones, assistant
professor of Industrial and Management Systems
Engineering and RFID expert, as adviser, they
sought to optimize RFID tag scans on packaging
of items used on space missions. Certain metal
substances and curved surfaces (for example, tubes
of shaving cream or toothpaste and batteries)
presented challenges. Pretests were performed
in a UNL lab with stationary scanning devices,
and at NASA in an underwater environment that
simulated reduced gravity.