Steve Burrin and Rod Gibson view the students' science demonstrations at the annual Herndon competition.
Since 1977, the annual Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition, hosted by Aerospace, has inspired Los Angeles–area high-school and middle-school students to tackle science and engineering challenges. Following the program's success, the corporation established a Washington-area competition in 2000 at the Chantilly office.
The competition honors the memory of Robert H. Herndon, the trailblazing African-American engineer who served as group director of the Advanced Mission Analysis Directorate and who played a key role in helping Aerospace define policies and practices for equal opportunity. The competition has two components: experiments and essays.
The experiment competition is the hallmark event. Teams of up to five students work with a faculty sponsor and an advisor assigned from Aerospace. Experiments are evaluated by a group of judges made up of senior management at Aerospace and executive officers from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). Winning projects are selected on the basis of originality and a demonstrated understanding of any one of eight science categories: chemistry, computer science, physics, engineering, robotics, aeronautics, environmental science, and biology. Some past winners presented a blood-glucose stabilization diet for astronauts, investigated the ecological importance of duckweed, and demonstrated the possible use of piezoelectric ultrasound in driving molecules through membranes.
Steve Burrin and Rod Gibson view the students' science demonstrations at the annual Herndon competition. |
Essays must cover a scientific topic, but students are given broad latitude in choosing their own specific subject. Essays are also reviewed by judges from Aerospace and SMC. Past winners have included such titles as "Stem Cell Research: Its Promise and Its Controversy," "Nanotechnology: Revolutionizing Medicine and Materials Science," and "Blowing Away the Big Bang Theory: The Impact of Ekpyrotic and Superstring Theories."
On the day of the event, students demonstrate their experiments in the Paulikas Mall, tour the corporation's laboratory operations, and listen to panel discussions. More than 70 students participated in 2006. Winners receive savings bonds of up to $1,000 and may also be eligible for summer employment at Aerospace. Oliver Ambrosia, a winner in 2000, subsequently joined Aerospace as a summer intern and now works in the Digital Communication Implementation Department. He delivered the welcome address at the 2006 competition.
Competition chair Terita Norton of the Digital and Integrated Circuit Electronics Department said, "Students benefit from this competition in a number of ways. They are not only being exposed to the fields of science and engineering, but also given an opportunity to interact with technical experts in a variety of fields. Students who may not have considered science or math interesting are given an opportunity to experiment with new and exciting technologies." Winners and nonwinners alike will hone skills that will serve them in their academic careers. The competition also gives employees at Aerospace a chance to mentor interested students and helps foster the next generation of scientists and engineers.