Two CSUMB teams bound for Houston for national NASA competition

By Mark Muckenfuss

Two student teams from Cal State Monterey Bay will travel to Houston in early December to compete in NASA’s MITTIC Space 2 Pitch, an event that challenges students to come up with novel ways to utilize materials the space agency has developed. 

MITTIC is an acronym of MUREP (Minority University Research and Education Project) Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition.

Only 12 teams were selected from applications nationwide and eight of those teams come from just four universities. UC Davis, San Diego State and Texas A&M are also sending two teams. The other universities are Michigan’s Andrews University, Adelphi University in New York and Bowie State and Morgan State universities, both in Maryland. The contest was open to minority-serving institutions, with the first-place team awarded $20,000 and a trip to the MITTIC Accelerator. The competition is Dec. 4 - 5.

Business Professor Dante Di Gregorio, who is overseeing the teams, said CSUMB’s performance has been remarkable.

“To have two of the 12 teams chosen in this nationwide competition is pretty amazing,” Di Gregorio said, “especially when you consider this is the first year we've participated. It shows our students can compete with the best. And it speaks to the strength of our programs here at CSUMB.”

The students were given access to a trove of NASA patents and challenged with proposing new uses for those products within a short time frame.

“In eight weeks, they were able to sort through this vast patent portfolio, make sense of the technology and try to develop novel applications,” Di Gregorio said. “I’m very impressed with what they were able to do.”

He said the students had to delve into the technology of the patents, something out of the ordinary for business majors. Mechatronics Engineering Professor Luis Cabrales helped judge the projects before they were submitted to the competition. 

One team, led by Ali Oritz, proposes to use sucrose-treated carbon nanotube technology to deliver superior impact absorption and exceptional lightweight properties to football helmets. The helmet’s outer shell, reinforced with NASA-grade materials, would offer a 30% increase in tensile strength compared to traditional helmets.

Marco Hernandez is the leader of the other team. He and his colleagues are proposing the use of a NASA-patented plastic for encasing car batteries. This particular polyamide is mixed with carbon fibers for strength and is heat resistant. It is also 3D printable, which Hernandez said raises the prospect of molding the casing of the batteries in ways that could make them fit in more efficient places in an electric vehicle. 

“The 3D printing part is special,” Hermandez said. “Until this point, I don’t think there’s been a way to 3D print a polyamide while maintaining structural integrity. This thing 3D prints it smooth so it will allow a lot of designers to get really creative. Instead of the battery being on the floor of the car, you could tuck it behind the wheel well. You could put it in places that are less vulnerable to impact.”

Hernandez said he was surprised and thrilled to get the news that the team had been selected. He added he’s a bit nervous about presenting the project before a large group of people. On the other hand, he’s looking forward to a tour of the Johnson Space Center, which is part of the trip.

“I’m obsessed with space,” he said. “I want to see the command center where they were talking on the radio with the astronauts that landed on the moon. That would be cool.”