Today we meet with Jennifer Davis, the director for the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Ms. Davis was born into a science loving family in Dublin, Ireland, where her father was one of only four people to hold a PhD in organic chemistry. From a very early age, her father helped her to value education and hard work.  This inspiration for science was reinforced when she moved to the US in 1981, and met her high school freshman biology teacher with whom she took every science class she could. Ms. Davis eventually obtained a Bachelor's degree in Biology although she spent the first part of her career training and breeding horses for Olympic equestrian teams. She began tutoring some of the those students in math and science, which changed the trajectory of her career.

Building upon her strong work ethic, a passion for organization and planning, and a deep love for all things science, Ms. Davis transitioned to teaching in 2003, and spent 9 years in both middle and high school science classrooms  before joining the secondary science curriculum team in 2012.  With her colleagues, Ms. Davis  supports 35 middle schools and 27 high schools in delivering highly engaging and effective science instruction, including participation in the Science Fair. Ms. Davis loves the fair because of the creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance of every student who completes a project, and, in fact, Kevin credits her for a lot of his own student success with the fair. As always, stay tuned for our takeaways after the show, and if you have a student who is interested in the fair but needs some assistance, reach out to us at our email: [email protected]

For more information on FALL courses and clubs with AIA: Go2Space on FB 

Today, we meet Sahadeo Ramjatan who received his Bachelor’s and Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida. There he served as President of the Small Satellite Design club where motivated students learn about space exploration through various STEM activities . His dedication helped  the organization to win  2nd place for Best Community Outreach from the AIAA Region II Conference. In addition, he performed internships at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center where he was a recipient of the NASA John Mather Nobel Scholarship. Sahadeo received the Belgian American Educational Foundation Fellowship (BAEF) and studied at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels, Belgium for 1-year to examine the hypersonic radio blackout of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Schiaparelli mission using computational fluid dynamics. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Minnesota and his research is focused on modeling the ablation of porous materials to help in the design of planetary entry spacecraft heat shields. His research, academic achievement, and commitment to advancing equity and inclusion allowed Sahadeo to participate MIT’s Rising Stars in Aerospace virtual academic career workshop. Sahadeo is currently pursuing a minor in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and in his free time, he likes to practice Indian Classical Music and teach children aspects of South Asian cultures.

Today we meet with Alpesh M. Patel who has spent the last three decades helping organizations drive their business development and revenue growth with strategies that blend technology, marketing, management and leadership. Over the past two decades in Palm Beach County, Alpesh has also served on numerous boards/committees and supported many nonprofits focusing on family literacy, entrepreneurship, leadership, and youth development.

Alpesh is now leveraging his experiences and intersecting his passions for serving clients, causes and community with creative problem solving to develop practical solutions for enriching lives. Pivoting his resources and his company, Alpesh initiated SeedingACCESS — a collaborative program that brings businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies together to invest repurposed computers with families in underserved communities.

We are excited to find ways to work with Alpesh to bring the AIA to students throughout our county and as always stay tuned after for our takeaways. 

Alpesh M. Patel.com 

leadershippbc.org

Praba Soundararajan is a Neuroscientist and a Children's book author of a STEM series. He is also the Founder & CEO at Boon-dah, an EdTech Startup company located in Tampa, Florida. Growing up in India, Praba was a reluctant reader during his childhood and much of his earlier part of adulthood. After moving to North America to pursue an education in Neuroscience, he discovered why reading had been such a chore. He was a visual learner—and much of the material he had been given was not presented in a manner that was conducive to his learning style. With this knowledge, He started reading short stories, science, and engineering books that were pictorial. He then began to write stories for children with the hope of inspiring other young reluctant readers

Praba created Pumpus the Pumpkin and his pals to teach STEM through storytelling using characters relatable to children. His hands-on approach to curriculum makes his series particularly interesting to students of all learning styles, including the reluctant readers like he had been himself. Stay tuned after the show for our takeaways.

Boon-dah website:  https://www.boon-dah.com/

Stephen Portz is a nationally recognized leader in STEM Education and an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. Steve is a pioneer in secondary engineering and manufacturing education – Creating the STEAM Engineering Academy in Brevard County, FL, developing curriculum standards, serving on state and national certification committees for software and testing, and working on a team to establish a national engineering credential for students. As an early adopter of 3D printing, Portz has a passion for giving students access to desktop manufacturing technologies and the democratization of product design. His work in this area has resulted in collaborative and curriculum design activities with America Makes, 3DSystems, Afinia Corp, and led to invitations to present at Florida State University, and the Olin College of Engineering in Boston. Portz is the recipient of the 2014 STEM Space Coast Educator of the year as well as the 2012 Florida Advanced Technological Education Center’s Manufacturing Educator of the Year. In 2015, Portz served on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) testing committee for Technology Education.  He also serves on the STEM Teacher Leadership Network.

Link to Portz's white paper on STEM education:  https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3410&context=space-congress-proceedings

Portz's Kindle book: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-New-Millennium-Problem-Solvers-ebook/dp/B07J6NLDDD/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1623962325&refinements=p_27%3AStephen+Portz&s=digita

Today we meet with Marcy Mabry—a senior mission manager at SpaceFlight Inc, with extensive engineering and project management experience in the aerospace industry.

In her current position she has overall technical, cost, and schedule responsibility for the Spaceflight customers. She works closely with spacecraft owners and operators, ensuring overall mission success, from mission assignment to post-launch, including onsite launch leadership. She guides her satellite customers to meet the technical and schedule requirements to successfully get launched.

Prior to her current position, Marcy was the VP for Business Development at Kaney Aerospace, an Avionics manager with Boeing's Commercial Airplanes, and a Space Shuttle Systems Engineer who supported the post-Columbia's Return to flight efforts.  Earlier in her career she was an Air Force F-15 electronics technician.

Marcy has a Bachelor's degree in Avionics, a BS in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University, and an MBA from Webster University. She is active in the community and a performing rock-n-roll guitarist and vocalist. Kevin and his CubeSat teams have worked with Ms. Mabry to bring their flight dreams to realization. As always stay tuned after the show.

In episode 17, we met John McClure, who among many outstanding achievement has been a big supporter of aerospace education. He was instrumental in the formation of Nebraska’s first CBT, and their satellite, the Big Red Sat will fly in a few years. Today, Kevin and I are joined by two members of that team to share more about how they formed a unique coalition of middle school, high school and university students who had a desire to go to space. We will Meet Joel Murch Shafer-- a junior at UNL majoring in computer and electrical engineering. He is also an active member of their Aerospace Experimental Payloads team or AXP and this is how their love of CubeSats began. Through their mentorship, our second guest,— rising ninth grader Elsa Meyer was invited to join. These two amazing individuals are great examples of how mentoring is a great educational tool as both the novice and more experienced members of their team both learn in the process of doing real world aerospace. We look forward to following them as they continue to build, design and launch cube sats.

Stay tuned after the show for our takeaway

[email protected] (for AXP website)

[email protected] (to reach Joel and the BigRedSat team)

Bigredsat.org (website for BigRedSat)

Today we meet with our friend and former employer, Dr. Denise Spirou.

Dr. Denise Spirou is the founding Head of School at The Greene School, an independent PreK through 8th grade school for high-performing students in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Spirou created the curriculum and culture at Greene nearly tripling enrollment in under three years. She joined the school after a 16-year tenure at another Florida private school for gifted children where she worked  as a teacher and administrator, earning her credentials as one of the region’s leading educators.

Due to her extensive knowledge and experience, Dr. Spirou is in demand as an instructor for gifted coursework, workshops and leadership training. Her personalized connection with all her constituents from students, parents, and teachers makes her a powerhouse in academic leadership. Today, she will share her perspectives about how the right learning environment can make all the difference for any student with a. focus on the academically gifted,  and she offers inspirational advice for teachers and parents of these exceptional children. As always, stay tuned after the episode for our takeaways.

The Greene School website: https://greene.school/

The Greene School FB:  https://www.facebook.com/thegreeneschool

John McClure is the President and CEO of Sicuro Technology, which specializes in satellite and radio communications. Mr. McClure also has over twenty-five years of experience in the IOT or internet of things space, leading the development and business team for the General Motors OnStar subsidiary-- the original large scale IoT commercial business. As an information technology senior manager for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) John provided leadership for $4.2 billion of products and services.

As an entrepreneur John created three technology startups in the software and systems integration industry, providing services to many markets including logistics, aerospace, as well as commercial and general aviation. Mr. McClure also Provided leadership for the State of Ohio’s Economic Development program which provided millions of dollars in investment capital for new technologies emerging from the state’s universities and medical centers.

Kevin met John through a shared love of CubeSats. In fact, John McClure was largely responsible for the initial formation of Nebraska's first CubeSat team, the BigRedOne, in 2020. The BigRedOne team was the first in Nebraska selected by NASAs CubeSat Launch Initiative earlier this year.

Stay tuned for our takeaways after the show.

bigredsat.org:  BigRedSat website

https://www.aerospacehigh.org/. Aerospace and Innovation Academy website

Looking for a great way for your STEM-loving middle or high school student to stay engaged this summer? Check out our offerings through the Aerospace and Innovation Academy's Summer Science and Space Sessions-- three distinct and unique virtual camps coming your way in July. Still time to register but don't delay. Deadline June 28th!

In this bonus episode, Kevin discusses Science Fair Iteration, Orbital Mechanics, and CubeSat Mission Planning offerings.

Link for registration:  https://forms.gle/wUXjBLeLjgwyrcV7A