NASA has selected 31 promising space technologies for testing aboard a variety of aircraft for their Space Tech Program. Two of the technologies that will be tested belong to imec, a neighbor to NeoCity Academy. As a part of imec’s application to NASA, NeoCity Academy was included to fly two student experiments into suborbital flight aboard a Blue Origin launch in the spring or fall 2021.
This program is essential to NASA in the testing phase of technologies that may make their way into use aboard the ISS, Artemis Program, or onto missions to Mars.
For their part, imec will be testing two miniaturized systems to study biological samples, such as cell cultures. The first is the lens-free microscope, essentially a miniaturized microscope, and the other are Neuropixels, a compact system to measure electrical signals from cells.
“Our mission to have our students’ work impact the global community begins with opportunities like this. So few K-12 students will ever have an opportunity such as this. We are grateful to imec, who has been an incredible industry partner who believes in our mission,” said NeoCity Academy Principal Michael Meechin.
NeoCity Academy students will have the opportunity to learn from and work with industry experts from imec, a world-leading R&D and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. As a trusted partner for companies, startups, and academia, imec brings together brilliant minds from all over the world in a creative, stimulating environment. By leveraging a world-class infrastructure and vast ecosystem of diverse partners and industries, they accelerate progress towards a connected, sustainable future.
“One of imec’s core missions is to stimulate STEM education within the local community. We are continually impressed with the caliber of students and faculty at NeoCity Academy, so when we saw the opportunity to include them in our proposal, we jumped on it. We look forward to engaging with them on this project and seeing their experiment literally go out of this world,” said Veerle Reumers, R&D manager of space health and imaging at imec.
