Space Grant Consortium aids Trine students with scholarships, competition grant

The Indiana Space Grant Consortium (INSGC) has awarded scholarships to four Trine University students and provided a grant for Trine students to participate in a national aircraft design competition.

Blake Trusty, a sophomore chemical engineering major from Fremont; Nicole Walters, a senior chemical engineering major from Sunbury, Ohio; Allison McCrady, a freshman biomedical engineering major from Lancaster, Ohio; and Caroline Hipskind, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Fort Wayne will each receive a $1,500 scholarship from the Indiana Space Grant Consortium (INSGC) for study at Trine during the 2016-17 school year.

This is the second year in a row Trine has had four students win INSGC scholarships. A total of 13 Trine students have received the scholarships over the past five years.

To qualify, students must be attending an INSGC affiliate institution, be a U.S. citizen, enrolled in good standing as an undergraduate throughout the scholarship period and major in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) discipline or STEM education.

INSGC also awarded James Canino, Ph.D., associate professor in the Wade Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, $5,000 to cover travel expenses for Trine students to compete in the 2017 AIAA Design Build Fly competition in Tucson, Arizona.

Student teams will design, build and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio-controlled aircraft that can best meet specified parameters of range, payload and speed.

 “This will give our students the opportunity to compete against some of the best aerospace programs in the country and show them what Trine students can do,” Canino said.

The Indiana Space Grant Consortium was created in 1991 under NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. The Space Grant national network includes organizations working to expand opportunities for Americans to learn about and participate in NASA’s aeronautics and space projects by supporting and enhancing science and engineering education, research and public outreach efforts.