NASA-UMBC Interaction Days

We are excited to announce three days of NASA-UMBC interaction, where senior scientists and technologists from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will give lectures on cutting edge science and technology advancements and discuss opportunities for students and faculty to engage with Goddard scientists and engineers.

Useful NASA Links

Sep 9, 2024

Earth Sciences

Speaker: Dr. Bethany Theiling
Email: bethany.p.theiling@nasa.gov

Speaker: Mr. Wayne Yu
Email: wayne.h.yu@nasa.gov
Slides: Building an Onboard AI for Future Astrobiology Mission Science
Video: mp4 (1.95 GB)
Brief Bio: Wayne Yu's research interest is in onboard autonomous guidance, navigation, and control algorithms to support Earth and deep space missions for single and distributed spacecraft. Mr. Wayne Yu is a Senior Guidance/Navigation/Control Spacecraft Engineer in the Navigation and Mission Design Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), where he works on several flight and research projects. Currently his main role is Flight Dynamics Lead for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission. Secondary roles include leading research in onboard autonomous GNC algorithms with applications in distributed spacecraft constellations. Previous projects include x-ray pulsar navigation and ground operations on the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT), Earth/Moon L1/L2 maneuver planning design on the Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) mission, and formation flight maneuver design on the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), and various mission operations support technical analysis for GSFC Space Science Missions Operations (SSMO). He received his B.S. in 2010 and then his M.S. in 2015 in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park with a thesis in x-ray pulsar navigation application and trajectory design.

Exoplanets

Speaker: Dr. Ravi Kopparapu
Email: ravikumar.kopparapu@nasa.gov
Slides: The Search for Habitable Worlds in Our Galaxy
Video: mp4 (2.84 GB)
Brief Bio: Dr. Ravi Kopparapu is a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His research is in the field of exoplanets and habitability, and he has made significant contributions to the study of exoplanet atmospheres and their potential for supporting life. His work includes developing climate models for exoplanets and investigating the habitable zones of distant stars where conditions might be suitable for liquid water, a key ingredient for life as we know it. His research has contributed to our understanding of the potential for life beyond Earth and the search for habitable exoplanets. He was the recipient of NASA's Exceptional Science Achievement Medal.

Lab Astrophysics

Speaker: Dr. Maurice Leutenegger
Email: maurice.a.leutenegger@nasa.gov
Slides: Laboratory X-ray Astrophysics
Video: mp4 (1.75 GB)

Sep 16, 2024

Data Science & AI

Speaker: Dr. Mark Carroll
Email: mark.carroll@nasa.gov
Slides: Data Science Group (606.3)
Video: mp4 (~2.9 GB)
Brief Bio: NASA has over 100 PB of data from missions spanning five decades in the satellite era. Traditional methods of identifying a particular study area, downloading the data locally and processing are no longer effective to deal with such large volumes of data. Machine learning has been used in remote sensing science for nearly 3 decades but has recently seen an explosion of interest and use as high end compute becomes widely available. The Data Science group at NASA Goddard works directly with scientists to help them accelerate their work "by whatever means necessary". Today I will give a brief overview of some activities ongoing at Goddard with results from AI/ML projects.

X-ray Astrophysics

Speaker: Dr. Rob Petre
Email: robert.petre-1@nasa.gov
Video: mp4 (~2.46 GB)

Speaker: Dr. Bindu Rani
Email: bindu.rani@nasa.gov
Slides: Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory: A Key Player in the Multi-Messenger Era
Video: mp4 (~2.01 GB)

Astrobiology

Speaker: Dr. Heather Graham
Email: heather.v.graham@nasa.gov
Slides: The limits of parsimony: Agnostic methods for designing life detection
Video: mp4 (~2.38 GB)

Sep 30, 2024

Habitable Worlds Observatory

Speaker: Dr. Aki Roberge
Email: aki.roberge-1@nasa.gov
Slides: Habitable Worlds Observatory: Telling the Story of Life in the Universe
Video: mp4 (~3.5 GB)

Payload Systems, Engineering

Speaker: Dr. David Everett
Email: david.f.everett@nasa.gov
Slides: Systems Engineering
Video: mp4 (~2.85 GB)

NASA's Long Term Goals

Speaker: Dr. Francesca Civano
Email: francesca.m.civano@nasa.gov

Speaker: Dr. Brian Humensky
Email: thomas.b.humensky@nasa.gov
Slides: The Physics of the Cosmos Program Office
Video: mp4 (~2.22 GB)

The Organizers

Name: Dr. Sibasish Laha
Email: sibasish.laha@nasa.gov

Name: Dr. Brad Cenko
Email: brad.cenko@nasa.gov
Slides: NASA-UMBC Interaction Days
Video: mp4 (~720 MB)
Brief Bio: I am a Research Astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. My research interests are varied but largely fall under the rubric of observational time-domain astronomy, including gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and tidal disruption flares. I am also intent on developing instrumentation and software to enable novel observations of such time variable phenomena. I am always looking for new opportunities in these fields - any interested students or postdocs, please be in touch!

Name: Dr. Don Engel
Email: donengel@umbc.edu
Video: mp4 (~1.04 GB)
Slides: UMBC: A History of Successful Cooperative Partnerships
Brief Bio: Dr. Engel serves as the UMBC Associate Vice President for Strategic Research Initiatives, as the Director of the UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology, and as the UMBC site lead for the CRESST cooperative agreement with NASA. As such, Dr. Engel is available for discussions about research matchmaking and about other ways to enhance the UMBC/NASA relationship.