MAES National Magazine

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) announced today the recipients of this year’s prestigious SHPE Technical Achievement Recognition (STAR) Awards, honoring key contributors in the Hispanic community in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

The annual STAR Awards are SHPE’s premier event, recognizing individuals and corporations nationally for their dedication, commitment and selfless efforts to the growth and advancement of Hispanics through STEM careers.

The STAR Awards offer several honored categories representing exceptional college students to industry professionals and public and private corporations.

The recipients of the 2015 STAR Awards will be recognized at this year’s SHPE Conference, November 11-15 in Baltimore, Maryland at the Baltimore Convention Center.

SHPE is pleased to announce this year’s 21 outstanding STAR Award winners in each of our honorable categories.
•Community Service – Marjorie Blanco, The Boeing Company
•Company of the Year – Northrop Grumman
•Corporate Achievement – Paul Rivera, Caterpillar Inc.
•Diversity – Dr. Raquel Romano, Google
•Educator of the Year, Higher Education – Brian Vazquez, East Los Angeles College
•Green Engineer – Alejandro Olivares, Delphi Electronics & Safety
•Government Agency of the Year – America*s NAVY
•Hispanic in Technology, Corporate – Ismael Rodriguez The Boeing Company
•Hispanic in Technology, Government – Margarita Varela-Rosa, Department of the Navy
•Innovator Award – David Estrada, Ph.D, Boise State University
•Jaime Oaxaca Award – Mike Cruz, Retired (NAVAIR)
•Junipero Serra Award – Naomi Hernandez, Booz Allen Hamilton
•Manager of the Year – Nestor Alexis Bautista Alvarez, Ford Motor Company
•Pioneer of the Year – Luis Robles, ArielZeus
•Professional Role Model – Rudolfo Trevino, Raytheon
•Promising Engineer – Juan D. Quintero, Chevron
•SHPE Star of Today – Lauren Hamburg, Newport News Shipbuilding
•SHPE Star of Tomorrow – Erick Rodriguez-Ramos, Exelon Generation
•Student Role Model, Graduate – Fidel Hernandez, Stanford University
•Student Role Model, Undergrad – Jose Campos, Utah State University
•Young Investigator Award- Dr. Lydia M. Contreras, University of Texas at Austin

“The recipients of this year’s STAR Awards are truly outstanding and have made a significant contribution to Hispanics and STEM in the past year,” said Richard Morley, SHPE CEO. “I am honored to recognize these key individuals for their continued support and commitment to the Hispanic community, but most importantly, for paving the way for the next generation of STEM leaders.”

SHPE Conference 2015

The SHPE Conference is the largest annual Hispanic STEM conference in the nation bringing together more than 5,000 professionals, educators, students and corporations from throughout the U.S. for technical and professional development workshops, design contests, technical competitions, engineering challenges, network opportunities and Career Expo. Pre-register online and learn about travel and hotel discounts. More information, including early conference registration rates effective through September 30, 2015, can be found by visiting the SHPE Conference website.

About SHPE

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers offers a network of more than 400 chapters nationally. SHPE’s mission is to change lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development. SHPE provides a variety of programming and resources including hosting the largest annual Hispanic STEM conference in the nation. For more information, visit www.shpe.org.

SOURCE Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)

 

College students have the opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation for NASA’s journey to Mars by designing systems for future space habitats and exploration systems through the agency’s Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge.

 

 

The challenge is designed to engage students directly in the design, research and development of functional components of future habitats. As NASA develops missions to send astronauts to destinations far into the solar system, such as an asteroid and Mars, a habitat to sustain the crews pioneering deep space environments will be needed.

 
The challenge also will help develop strategic partnerships with universities in order to increase knowledge in critical exploration capabilities and technology risk reduction activities.

 
To apply for the challenge, student teams must submit their plans for designing, manufacturing, assembling and testing systems for evaluation by engineers and scientists in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, which leads and oversees the agency’s human space operations in low-Earth orbit and beyond. Applications for the challenge will be accepted through April 30.

 
This year’s challenge includes a broad array of topics such as power distribution systems, deployable structures, habitat architectural layout studies and food production systems. Previous projects have included a remotely-operated plant growth system and a deployable airlock structure.

 

The X-Hab Challenge is part of a continuing effort to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. Exposing students to engineering and design processes used in the aerospace industry will benefit both NASA and the participants.

 

The challenge is managed by the National Space Grant Foundation for NASA. Teams selected for the challenge will receive a monetary stipend to assist in producing functional products based on their designs.

 

 

For more information on the 2016 X Hab Challenge application process, visit:
http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab/

 

 

For more information on NASA’s journey to Mars, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars