A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends
The sky is not the limit for UMES researchers UMES physics professor Kausik Das spent a week with the National Research Council of Canada in mid-October participating in suborbital flights to conduct experiments under zero-gravity conditions, including one developed by four University of Maryland Eastern Shore students. Das worked alongside and observed astronauts and scientists who were testing potential modifications to body-sensors in space suits for the International Space Station. To simulate outer space, Das flew aboard a custom-built Falcon 20 aircraft for a roller coaster-like ride – known as a “parabolic” flight, which he described as “an ‘out-of-the-world’ experience Literally!”
November 9, 2018
Das has been collaborating with space agencies since 2001, when he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara and participated in a NASA-funded project on the behavior of fluids in reduced gravity. Later, working at the University of Toronto as a research fellow and physics lecturer, he was involved in Canadian Space Agency research of “g-jitter” – science shorthand for time-dependent variations of the body force in orientation and magnitude in low-gravity environments. “For this (October 2018) mission, one of my collaborators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and I proposed a zero-gravity experimental study through the (citizen-science astronautics) program known as Project PoSSUM,” said Das, who joined the UMES faculty in 2014. Guiding current UMES undergraduates, he said, “we built a payload to test our solid-body rotation experiment in zero-gravity.” Nathan J. Bane, Justin E. Derickson, Ayobami O. Ogunmolasuyi and Jesudara Omidokun built “the whole experimental payload … from scratch. They designed it and 3D printed the parts, designed their own printed circuit board (and) their own circuit, wrote a customized code to run it, assembled it, tested it and trouble-shot it.” “The goal was designing an experiment that could be conducted in a zero-gravity environment to exhibit and measure the rotational behavior of DAS / continued on page 2
INSIDE
What is life without the ability to receive and give gifts? Giving can create an array of many colorful perspectives, and a world of many great opportunities. I have been at both ends of that giving spectrum. Among my earliest recollections of giving occurred on Thanksgiving in New York City, when I aided in feeding the less fortunate. A little act of kindness went a very long way for so many people. I remember the smiles coming from those in need as I nervously took a piece of turkey from the warming tray and placed it on someone’s plate. I am thankful to my parents and my church for giving me the opportunity to visit New Orleans, where as a middle school student I had an opportunity to participate on the front line of relief efforts to help Hurricane Katrina’s victims.
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Das Continued Dacres Continued
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Computer-Aided Fashion Merchandising Hall of Famers
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Halloween Event
The Circle of Giving
On a second trip to New Orleans, I visited a childcare center in the city’s well-known 9th Ward. It was an equally memorable experience. I met children, ages 3-15, with bullet By Joshua Dacres wounds in their heads, necks, chest and arms. Through fellowship and leisure, I was able to interact with these children and came away feeling the simple act of giving my time to someone in need was somehow making a positive difference and creating an opportunity of hope for a better tomorrow. Years later, I had no idea that I, too, would be a beneficiary of the gift of giving. Because of a generous acts of giving, I am grateful to be a recipient of the Tom Joyner Foundation’s Hercules Scholarship. It, along with many other awards and scholarships, have afforded me the opportunity to be a student GIVING / continued on page 2
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HalloweeK 2018 @ UMES
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Athletics Wrap-up
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Destination UMES 2018
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A&E Calendar