Let's Go to Space: BLUE-SKY Learning

This is a replay originally airing in April 2021 as episode 12. Dr. Muckerjee continues to be a well-respected ally of the AIA!

Dr. Jaydeep Mukherjee is an astronomer, faculty at the Univ of Central Florida, and the Director of the NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium. This consortium is a state-wide association of universities, colleges, the Astronaut Memorial Foundation, Space Florida, Kennedy Space Center, and the Orlando Science Center. The Florida Space Grant Consortium supports the expansion and diversification of Florida’s space industry, by providing grants, scholarships, and fellowships to students and educators from Florida’s public and private institutes of higher education.

Dr. Mukherjee's education culminated at the Univ of Florida with a Ph.D. in Astronomy and his areas of interest are close binary star systems.  Dr. Mukherjee is a strong supporter of STEM Education.

For almost 20 years Dr. Mukherjee has served as Director of the NASA sponsored Florida Space Grant Consortium (FSGC) He has held numerous leadership roles including  Director of the Florida Space Institute, Chair of the Southeast Regional Space Grant, and as a member of the National Space Grant Foundation Board of Directors. He's won numerous awards for excellence in outreach and published the book entitled "Close Binary Stars: A Pictorial Atlas" along with co-authors Dr. Robert Wilson and Dr. Dirk Terrell.

Dr. Mukherjee has been a true friend and supporter to both educators and students in the state of Florida for over two decades.

As we continue our holiday replay-- check out this great episode with Frank DeBello from epsode 66! 

Today, we meet with, Space Florida President and CEO, Frank DiBello. in May 2009 Mr. DiBello was chosen to lead Space Florida, which is the principal state agency for aerospace-related economic development, and the Space Authority for the State of Florida. In his position, he develops and executes programs designed to attract, retain and grow aerospace business across the state. Additionally, Mr. DiBello focuses on Florida aerospace workforce development and retention as well as international partnership development.  Mr. DiBello holds more than 50 years of direct aerospace, defense and emerging space industry-related experience. Frank spent more than 20 years at KPMG, in various management positions, and served on President Reagan’s Grace Commission. For his service to the Nation in this Commission, he was presented with a Presidential Citation.  Mr. DiBello formed SpaceVest, a Venture Capital Firm focused on investments in companies taking defense and space technologies to commercial applications and markets.  Prior to Space Florida he served as President and CEO of Constellation Communications, International and was President/CEO of Florida’s Aerospace Finance Corporation (FAFC).

Mr. DiBello has been involved in multiple civic, social and industry volunteer organizations. He founded the Washington Space Business Roundtable and for his work as President of the Board of the USO Metropolitan Washington, he received the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Department of Defense’s highest civilian honor.  He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University, and did graduate work at American and George Washington Universities. Recently Mr. DiBello was inducted into the Space Satellite Hall of Fame.

Dr. Paula do Vale Pereira is currently an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on technology development for space exploration, mainly through the use of Earth-orbiting small spacecraft and probes for the exploration of Ocean Worlds, such as Europa and Enceladus. She has worked on the development of three satellites, being the Assembly, Integration and Testing lead for the BeaverCube satellite, the lead operator for the DeMi satellite, and the lead Mechanical Engineer for both BeaverCube and DeMi. She has also worked on the development, testing, and modeling of melt probes for subsurface descent in the cryogenic vacuum ice found in icy moons in the outer solar system. Dr. do Vale Pereira holds several degrees including a Ph.D. in Space Systems Engineering and a M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Stay tuned after for our takeaways. 

Today Kevin and I meet with Annalyn Connor is an undergraduate Aerospace student at the University of Central Florida, with a minor in Physics. Along with her fascination for space travel and sustainability, Annalyn hopes to preserve Earth by using knowledge from space missions and other planetary discoveries. She is currently conducting experiments at Exolith Lab using their Lunar and Martian simulants and believes that a sustainable and economical agricultural ecosystem is essential for the future habitation of other airless bodies. Her research involves the interaction of earthworms in Exolith's simulant regolith, in order to create a more fertilized soil for plant growth promotion. To enable life on the moon, Annalyn hopes to aid in a fully sustainable system that can use worms to break down astronaut secretion and food scraps, in turn providing nutrients for crop production.

In this Special REPLAY episode we revisit our interview with Dr. Jin Kang who was a keynote at our first SmallSatEducation Conference.

Dr. Jin S. Kang (Suk Jin Kang) is an Associate Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy, and serves as the Director of the Naval Academy Small Satellite Program. His main research area is in small satellite technology development and was involved in development of four micro-satellites and numerous CubeSat satellites. He received his B.S. from the University of Michigan, M.S. from Stanford University, and Ph.D. from Korea Aerospace University (KAU) in Aerospace Engineering. After working for General Electric for two years, Kang taught at Korea Air Force Academy, KAU, and Drexel University before joining the Naval Academy faculty.

We continue to be proud to work with Dr. Kang and invite you to stay tuned after the episode fo

Dr. Gregg Cannady is COO and co-founder of One voice for change, a Colorado-based non-profit whose Vision is to bring equal learning opportunities to children around the world. Gregg builds local, national, and even international communities to empower students via simple relationships and collaborations with industry and subject matter experts. Two of their most known international programs are the Martian Greenhouse and S2B2O, and we will hear more about the work he does with these programs today.

Interestingly, Dr. Cannady does NOT have a background in aerospace. Instead, he has a music background, having received a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting and Literature from the University of Colorado, a M.A. in Music Education from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in Music Education from Colorado State University. His work bringing students together to solve problems on Earth and eventually beyond shows that there is a place for all passions in space. As always, stay tuned after.

Today we meet with Amber Imai-Hong, an Avionics Engineer and Outreach Specialist. Born and raised on Hawaii Island, Amber developed skills in robotics, astronomy, and tinkering while attending Wa ia kea High School which lead her to join a small satellite team in her freshman year at the

Michele Jamrozik received her PhD degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003 form the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Michele has experience in both academia (research and teaching in speech, image, and video processing) as well as in industry (automotive software and electronics, computer vision systems, biotech/nanotechnology, etc.). More recently, Michele completed the Interdisciplinary Space Master at the University of Luxembourg.  Michele is currently a research associate in the SnT computer vision group CVi2 at  the at the University of Luxembourg  where she is working on AI solutions for space and fraud detection.  Dr. Jamrozik is a member of the IEEE Computer and Signal Processing societies.

After this weekend's success at the SmallSat Education Conference, we were excited to catch up with members of the BigRedSat, which was the vision of the late John McClure.  While he did not live to see his dream come to fruition, we are honored to have met him and to continue to see the lives he has touched. 

John McClure was the President and CEO of Sicuro Technology, which specialized in satellite and radio communications. Mr. McClure had 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 almost two years ago. 

Stay tuned for our takeaways after the show.

bigredsat.org:  BigRedSat website

Today we are honored to meet with the esteemed Kate Tobin-- a science journalist with a long track record in television news.  She was a Producer with the CNN Science and Technology Unit from 1991 to 2008.  She then formed her own production company and was Executive Producer of the National Science Foundation’s “ Science Nation” series from 2009 to 2019.  She currently produces, shoots and edits stories for the PBS NewsHour, working in partnership with her long-time colleague Miles O’Brien.  She is honored to have won two National News & Documentary Emmy Awards, one for the CNN Breaking News Program “In Nature’s Wake,” and the other for the PBS NOVA Film “Manhunt - Boston Bombers.” She  holds a Bachelors degree from Agnes Scott College with a double major in Biology and English.

Link to PBS show on DART