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Honors Students help Secure NASA Funding for Space Research

Honors Students help Secure NASA Funding for Space Research

Last year as a freshman, Ian Wells worked on cleaning protocols in Professor Jake Leachman’s Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Lab – working on procedures to assure the lab stayed tidy and safe.

This year, he and a team of WSU students received an approximately $130,000 grant, one of seven awarded nationwide through NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge for a project to wash lunar dust out of spacesuits.

For Wells and his fellow students, getting from cleaning protocols in the lab to lunar space suits is a story of creativity, hard work, and more than a bit of serendipity.

“Ian had the right interest and was ready to go with the right project to make it happen,” said Leachman.

Cleaning up lunar dust might sound like a minor issue compared to the many other technical issues that astronauts have to deal with. But, as anyone in the Pacific Northwest who lived through the explosion of Mount St. Helens knows, lunar dust, which is similar to volcanic ash, gets everywhere. It is abrasive and damages engines and electronics. It can cause health problems, described as ‘lunar hay fever,’ when people inhale it. Scientists have not found a good way to easily clean off items that get dusty in space.

For the WSU team, the journey to NASA started last year at Wells’ job interview in the HYPER lab. At the interview, Wells mentioned that he liked photography, and Leachman asked if he knew about Schlieren photography, a process that is used to photograph fluids or gasses at varying densities. He didn’t.

The cryogenic wash (liquid nitrogen) lifting dust simulant (Mt. St. Helens Ash) from a surface.

Last summer, bored during the pandemic and stuck at home in Boise, Wells decided to make a Schlieren camera. The camera he built worked well enough that Leachman asked him to try it out in the HYPER lab, taking images of liquid nitrogen picking up dust.

Leachman is not the first to notice that dropping a little liquid nitrogen on the lab floor makes for quick clean up due to a phenomenon called the Leidenfrost Effect. As is the case when one pours water on a hot frying pan, pouring liquid nitrogen onto a hot floor makes droplets skitter across the room, carrying dust particles and floating on boiling vapor.

With camera in hand and while taking pictures of dust cleaning, the researchers learned of the NASA challenge.

“It was a perfect opportunity,” said Wells, who has long dreamed of working for NASA. “We pivoted away from taking pictures of liquid nitrogen to harnessing the effect to clean up dust.”

To test whether the liquid nitrogen could work to clean up space suits, the researchers needed lunar dust, which is understandably difficult to get.

Once again, luck was on their side. Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash has been shown to be similar in composition and particle shape to moon dust. It so happens that some WSU researchers 40 years ago collected barrels of pure ash off rooftops when the mountain blew. A recent news story on their long-ago efforts led the students to the ash they needed — sitting in a barn 12 miles from Pullman.

With the ash, they were able to test their idea and prove their concept, showing that the liquid nitrogen easily washes off fabrics covered in the dusty material. “Their concept is really original,” said Leachman. “There is no literature about it being effective for dust removal and there was not anything alluding to it in the request for proposals.”

The students are now funded to further develop and test their technology in a simulated lunar environment and will present their results to a NASA panel in November.

In addition to Wells, team members on the project include Camden Butikofer, Nathaniel Swets, and Lauren Reising, mechanical engineering undergraduates; John Bussey, an undergraduate in materials science and chemical engineering; and graduate students Stasia Kulsa and Gregory Wallace. In addition to Leachman, the team is advised by Professors John McCloy and Konstantin Matveev in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

“I’m very grateful for our wonderful team who put in a lot of effort to make this happen,” said Wells. “And, I’m thankful to the HYPER lab and WSU’s engineering program. Without all their support, this project definitely wouldn’t happen.”

Honors College Graduate First to Complete MESI Certificate

Honors College Graduate First to Complete the

Mindfulness-Based Emotional and Social Intelligence (MESI) Certificate

By Linda Infranco
January 2021

 

Last month, the Honors College at Washington State University celebrated the academic achievements of the fall graduating class at its virtual commencement ceremony. Among the students honored was Jordyn Brounstein, who in addition to her degree, had another achievement to celebrate: She is the first student to complete the requirements of Honors’ MESI Certificate.

MESI, or Mindfulness-Based Emotional and Social Intelligence, is a certificate offered by Honors that focuses on the value of engagement and provides students with the tools to address overall wellbeing through self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and compassion. Established in 2018 by a gift from Jon and Gretchen Jones, the MESI Certificate is an approved university certificate that requires students to fulfill 15-credited MESI courses in the humanities and social and natural sciences, attend workshops, and engage in local and/or global service-learning activities.

Both trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, Robin Bond, assistant dean, and Lydia Gerber, director of MESI, established collaborative partnerships with academic and central units across campus including the Department of Human Development and WSU’s Center for Civic Engagement. Through these relationships, Honors will broaden the menu of diverse MESI offerings to enrich students’ personal and professional growth while at the same time making MESI a well-recognized name across the WSU system.

“There has been a lot of enthusiasm from many areas of the university for promoting the core ideas and benefits of MESI,” said Bond. “As a result, we are discovering new opportunities for collaboration between the Honors College and other units.”

Brounstein, who received her degree with majors in Psychology and Human Development, will apply her skills and MESI training to her career as a clinical assistant at a residential treatment facility for teens in her home state of California. Brounstein shared that MESI not only helped her in the interview process but contributed to a higher starting salary.

“MESI courses have taught me how to better take care of my mental health and inspired me to pursue the career path that I hope to build for myself,” she says.

The MESI Certificate in Honors teaches the academic principles of self-care which was not only important to Brounstein personally who, as an Honors student, “was always on the go and trying to achieve more,” but will help in her role working with young people in treatment.

“Self-care is a really important part of MESI. It has given me the space to work on myself through mindfulness training, journaling, and creating boundaries. I introduced MESI to my friends and now they are benefitting from it as well.”

“Jordyn’s enthusiasm for MESI has been infectious,” said Gerber. “As our first graduate, she literally embodies the qualities emphasized in our certificate.”

Brounstein sees the value of MESI for students of all majors.

“The MESI framework not only helps students care for themselves and others, but through training in emotional competence, also improves their relationships at work.” The MESI Certificate gives students a unique toolbox to seek a growth mindset in how we approach our daily lives – ultimately impacting a much wider community.

Additional courses in conflict resolution and relationships will be offered as part of the MESI Certificate in Honors beginning spring semester 2021

 

Summit addresses inequities through storytelling, innovation

Summit addresses inequities through storytelling, innovation

Participants at Washington State University’s recent Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit told stories about how the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare existing and historical inequities in their communities. They also shared messages of hope and programs that are making a difference.
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MIRA Program

Awards Could Cover Tuition
WSU lands NIH grant for biomedical, engineering undergraduate MIRA program

PULLMAN, Wash.—A new, five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for more than $700,000 will fund a “motivating innovation and research achievement” (MIRA) program for Washington State University Honors College underrepresented student researchers in biomedical science and engineering fields, said the three faculty members serving as co-principal investigators. » More …

“Views” Blog Entry 1

Trymaine Gaither
WSU Honors College
June 2020

How long will you care?
Part One

It seems that America is finally having a racial awakening… again. There are a lot of fired up people taking to the streets to protest and support Black Lives Matter. Particularly white people. …Today we care.

It seems as though our current circumstances have been the perfect storm for a social justice revival. After all, we’ve been stuck inside our homes for months and just touching public doorknobs feels like a potential health threat. From churches to grocery stores to restaurants, nothing feels the same. Life has been disrupted in a way never experienced before. Sporting events and Broadway shows cancelled. Summer vacations and study abroad trips postponed. Some have made every effort not to leave their homes at all. Many have been frustrated with the government’s handling of the pandemic. Some have asked, “where are the test kits?” and “isn’t this is far worse than the flu?” Others have yelled “open up the economy before my children starve to death!” Those not deemed “essential workers” have tuned in and washed their hands during each commercial break. Every state has taken vastly different approaches to the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. We have watched while our leaders have argued and finger-pointed as the pandemic has become more and more politicized. COVID-19 has created a shared grievance. …We suddenly cared.

As the nation slowly entered lockdown and most of us were stuck in our homes grappling with homeschooling and teleworking, we began to worry if there would be enough resources needed to fight this pandemic. Were items being delivered and stocked quickly enough? Would there be enough ventilators and test kits for the masses? Will I lose my job and livelihood from this economic fallout? As we entered the unknown and felt our own vulnerability, we noticed our “essential workers” and their vital role in our lives. They were putting their lives on the line for items that we take for granted, like toilet tissue. Those working in grocery stores, nursing homes, meat manufacturing plants, hospitals, hotels, construction sites, retail stores and loading docks were truly “essential” to our quality of living. We also noticed they were dying at a disproportionate rate compared to everyone else. And as the deaths from COVID-19 continued to rise, one statistic became more and more glaring: the Black and brown community who held many of the low-wage essential jobs were dying at a much higher rate than any other demographic. With our routines interrupted and unable to distract ourselves, we noticed the glaring inequities that are ever present in our society today. We felt empathy for our essential workers. We also needed toilet tissue. …We suddenly cared.

Then, after two months of being stuck at home, an injustice took place. For the first time, many of us decided to watch the footage of a black man’s death at the hands of a police officer. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds a man was strangled by the knees of law enforcement. While handcuffed, he yelled “I can’t breathe” countless times. He pleaded for his life. As George Floyd was taking his last breaths, he called out for his deceased mother. We were outraged. We were disgusted. Black Lives Matter!You suddenly cared!

—Perhaps you already cared but feared being ostracized by family and friends if you spoke out. Perhaps the frustrations of the COVID-19 pandemic were compounded by this unjust murder was too much to bear. Perhaps you protested because you were tired of being on lockdown and looked for any reason to congregate and enjoy human interaction. Perhaps you always cared silently and being able to wear a mask (thanks to COVID-19) you felt greater security in joining the protests. Regardless of why, we all noticed that more white Americans cared right now that ever in our lifetime; however, many of us in the black and brown communities didn’t suddenly care when we watched the murder of George Floyd. …We always cared.

We cared in 2012 when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home from buying Skittles and a vigilante stalked him, fought him, and when he couldn’t subdue him, fatally shot him. During the trial, an all-woman jury was selected. None were black. The prosecutor was confident that a group of all women jurors would sympathize with the death of an unarmed black child leaving a convenient store after buying candy. The defense was confident that an all-woman jury would sympathize with George Zimmerman because he was light-skinned and feared for his life. His defense: Trayvon Martin had a weapon and that weapon was the pavement. Verdict, not guilty. …We cared.

We cared in 2014 when Eric Garner was choked at the hands of a police officer for selling loose cigarettes and died in similar fashion as George Floyd. His death was also caught on camera as he yelled “I can’t breathe.” However, the officer who killed Garner was assigned to desk duty while still making $78,000 per year until he was finally fired in 2019. We protested. We were outraged. The video of his death was just as horrible. …We cared.

We cared in 2014 when Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy, playing with a toy gun at a youth recreation center, was gunned down by a police officer immediately as he arrived at the scene. Again, the officer was acquitted. We wailed. We protested. …We cared.

We cared in 2015 when Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old charged with possession of a knife, died while being transported by a police van. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Many of us learned that Freddie Gray had been born in poverty and that he and his siblings suffered lead poisoning due to the public housing unit where they grew up; the lead poisoning was so bad that the Gray family won an undisclosed settlement from the owner of the property. Freddie Gray was just one of the 13,000 children living in public housing that suffered lead poisoning during that time. Gray’s short and unfair life was a tragedy. The officers involved in the murder of Freddie Gray were acquitted. We protested. We lamented. …We cared.

We cared in 2019 when a Latinx 14-year-old boy, Antonio Arce, was killed by a police officer, shot in the back while running with a toy gun. The officer was granted retirement benefits and resigned a few months later. We demanded justice. Our wounds were reinjured. …We cared.

We care about Sandra Bland. We care about Breona Taylor. We care because we live in a system that fails to convict cops when they kill our men, women, and children. …We care then and we care now.

Any of these cases could have been me. As a Black man in America, I was not afforded the luxury of not caring about these issues. Some data suggest that the odds of being shot by law enforcement is on par with being struck by lightning. The odds of law enforcement being found guilty for killing a black or brown person is also on par with being struck by lightning—even when they kill an innocent child.

Our system fails us again and again. America sends us black fathers a clear message: If the ground that my son walks on can be seen as a weapon in the court of law, then my black son is always armed and dangerous. Trayvon died and his killer went unpunished. Like Amhad Abry, he was not killed by a police officer, but a member in the community that saw his mere existence as a threat. When Amhad Abrey was killed, I lamented. I wailed. …I cared.

Research shows that Black boys are viewed as older and less innocent than white boys. I know from experience that this data is accurate. At the age of 15, a police officer pulled his gun on me and pointed it at my face. I was in the back seat of the car during a traffic stop for an expired license plate. I had dropped the candy that I was eating onto the floor of the car and had reached down to pick it up. That alone had provoked the cop to draw his weapon. When the cop pulled out the gun and said, “Hands where I can see them!” I was not a child to him. I was a threat. But I’m not counted in any statistical data. I was not killed, arrested, or choked; however, from that point on, my amygdala detected every encounter with an officer as a threat to my survival.

The amygdala has a fascinating function—it is our brain’s lookout patrol, constantly scanning everything we see for threats. When your amygdala detects what looks like a threat to survival, it puts you in fight-flight-freeze mode. Like many Black and brown men, my amygdala is triggered during any encounter with police. My heart races and my hands stay as visible and still as possible. I still remember that gun pointed at my face as I was holding a bag of Twizzlers. I am not an anomaly. Ask any Black or brown American who grew up in a predominantly Black or brown community and you will hear about countless encounters involving teenage boys being overpoliced, targeted, and threatened by police. The ones recounting the stories may still be alive to speak about their experience, but the trauma remains.

I’m grateful that America cares about these issues right now. I’m especially grateful that white America is giving itself permission to speak up about issues of white supremacy and racism in public spaces. I’m grateful that my white supervisor asked me to write this article. The questions that I’m wondering are…

Will you still want to fight racism when you return to your jobs and your regular lives?

Will you have time to watch the footage of the next black death after the coronavirus lockdown has lifted and you’re able to return to your normal distractions?

Will you still care after the protests have died down and the news cycle shift topics?

Anger has its place, but it is not sustainable; however, awareness is boundless. How can we turn these emotions into sustained coalition building?

…How long will we care?

 In the words of Tupac Shakur:

There is no fear in a shallow heart
Because shallow hearts don’t fall apart
But feeling hearts that truly care
Are fragile 2 the flow of air
And if I am 2 be true then I must give
My fragile heart
I may receive great joy or u may return it
Ripped apart.


Part Two:
Mindfulness as a tool for Social Justice

 While the moment is ripe, I’d like to encourage you really incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily life. My personal definition of mindfulness is “trained attention.” As you begin to really pay attention to what your mind is doing, you will probably find that there’s a great deal of thoughts and feelings going on behind the surface. Those thoughts and feelings can be draining and obstacles to peace and contentment. As Socrates famously stated: “Know thyself.”

As you embark upon your own practice of mindfulness, begin to really examine your mindset about race. We usually don’t see the effects of our mindset because we are too identified with the beliefs behind it. Our mindset doesn’t feel like a choice that we make but an accurate assessment of how the world works. Chances are, you probably don’t realize how that belief affects your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Kelly McGonigal calls this “mindset blindness.” The solution is to practice mindset mindfulness: paying attention to how your current race mindset operates in your life.

To get to know your race mindset, start to notice how you think and talk about race. Notice how thinking and talking about race makes you feel. Does it motivate you? Exhaust you? Paralyze you? Do you talk about race at all or make every attempt to avoid race discussion? Begin to examine what your family and upbringing taught you about race. Reflect on your earliest memories of your own race and racism. According to Janet Helms, our racial identity is a developmental process. There is an upside to understanding our racial identities and the mindset that comes with that understanding. Awareness is boundless. The true mindset shift that matters is one that allows you to hold a more balanced and honest view of race and the racism in our world, to deny it less, to trust yourself to handle what comes with its truth, and to use it as a resources for engaging with the lives around you.

For those like me who identify with a marginalized group, there’s another amazing benefit to incorporating mindfulness into your daily lives: there is an ability called “response flexibility” which is the ability to pause before you act. Your amygdala might be sounding the alarms, but your emotional stimulus is strengthened in a way that you will not react as you normally would. If you’re like me, my amygdala will sound the alarms to perceived threats, even if they aren’t actual. This can also drain a lot of energy and be an obstacle to contentment. Taking time to practice stillness and paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, and sensations can lower your impulse to feel threatened and give space for deeper insight and healing.

If we really look at the beautiful practices of mindfulness and self-compassion, we will begin to see these exercises could be the tools for coalition building. We may start to see the intrinsic order and connectedness that exist between ourselves and “the other.” We can increase our awareness for the suffering around us and really address some of these issues plaguing our communities. Knowing the history of our society, I’m cautiously optimistic that this moment will produce real change. But real change will only happen if our empathy and compassion are sustained.

Mindfulness Practice: Sit in silence and really ask yourself …How long will you care?


About the Author

Trymaine Gaither is the MESI (Mindfulness Based Emotional Social Intelligence) Coordinator and Recruitment Coordinator for the WSU Honors College.

trymaine

What if every student could enroll in a MESI class…

 

 

What if every student could enroll in a MESI class…

Cooper Greenfield
Cooper Greenfield (’20 Human Resource Management)

 

“If every student on campus enrolled in a Mindfulness-Based Emotional and Social Intelligence (MESI) class to increase their self-awareness, empathy and leadership effectiveness we’d see a much brighter Pullman campus. The Cougs-help-Cougs mentality that we already see in our community is a great show of empathy and compassion already existing in Coug culture. Though, it has its limits. I think if everyone takes a MESI course, they can see that this Cougs-help-Cougs mentality can extend across the world and take on a deeper level of people-help-people. We are all seeking a meaningful life, free of suffering, where we can love/be loved, and be happy. These classes show us how much impact we have on each other as people and how much power we have to uplift those around us.”

To learn more about the MESI Certificate in Honors visit https://honors.wsu.edu/mesi/

 

 

 

 

 


Honors College names first Elma Ryan Bornander Chair

Honors College names first Elma Ryan Bornander Chair

Will HamlinWashington State University English Professor William M. Hamlin has been selected as the first faculty member to serve the Honors College as the Elma Ryan Bornander Honors Chair.

“Will is a scholar, author, researcher, and award-winning teacher and mentor who has served the university, his department, and the Honors College and its students for years in innovative and impactful ways,” said M. Grant Norton, Honors dean. “We are very pleased that our relationship with him will progress even further and more deeply over the next two years through this endowed chair position.” » More …

WSU’s first Marshall Scholar bound for U.K. graduate studies

WSU’s first Marshall Scholar bound for U.K. graduate studies

PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University chemical engineering senior Kristian Gubsch, a member of the Honors College, is headed in fall to the United Kingdom’s University of Sheffield as WSU’s first recipient of a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study. » More …

Scandinavia 2019 Travel Blog – June 30

Students standing before a display showing a pewterer at work.

Scandinavia 2019 Travel Blog – June 30

By Kim Andersen

Last day after two weeks of intense travel and sight seeing. Now awaits the journals and the research papers on a variety of topics. Tomorrow morning we say goodbye to our hostel-ship af Chapman and Stockholm as we take the Arlanda Express to the airport and catch our various flights back to the US and elsewhere. I am fairly certain that these students have never before experienced such an intense program of museums and guided tours exposing them first-hand to many dimensions of past and contemporary culture. It is up to them to make something of it.

» More …