This year has been quite a fruitful year for M2I projects. Over the 2023-2024 school year, we had 13 projects and over 250 students researching, innovating, creating, and competing. We have been able to allow our students to experience competition, service, and research.
M2I Yearly Recap
We had four of our six competition teams get into their respective competitions. Two teams, Design Build Fly (DBF) and CyLaunch competed in April. DBF competed in the AIAA Design Build Fly competition, placing 46th out of 107 teams. They represented us well for the first time back at competition in almost five years. CyLaunch returned to the NASA Student Launch competition, and our team came within one foot of their projected 5000ft apogee. This earned them the Altitude Award and secured 2nd Place overall. It’s an accomplishment for this team, who has never placed in the top 5. Two teams traveling in June are MAVRIC (Mars Analog Vehicle for Robotic Inspection and Construction) to the University Rover Challenge in Hanksville, UT. MAVRIC placed 11th overall, their highest placement in the competition. RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage) travels to Cocoa Beach, FL, for their paper competition. Both of these competitions are highly competitive, with URC only accepting 38 out of over 102 applications, and for RASC-AL, ISU was in the top 5 finalists in their category.
Our service teams have been busy as well. HABET (High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology) team traveled to Carbondale, IL, to launch a high-altitude balloon from the football stadium at Southern Illinois University during the 2024 total solar eclipse. The group worked with the Montana Space Grant Consortium as part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. The data gained from this effort will be invaluable. CySat-1 (Cyclone Satellite) is also integrated and will manifest on Cygnus NG-21 to be launched in August 2024. This satellite will be the first to be completely assembled by students from Iowa, making it the first of its kind to be launched from the State of Iowa. The satellite will carry a payload that will measure soil moisture, which has a unique design due to the small size of the satellite. It will reach the International Space Station and launch into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It should last 3 months in LEO.
Our research-based and industry projects have pushed their boundaries in engineering knowledge. These projects allow the students learning opportunities that they cannot receive in a typical classroom. Their research has touched space, aeronautics, chemistry, and beyond to find new solutions to problems our world may face. The students had very successful test flights of a new wing design tested on a model Boeing 737 and developed new methods for cold welding. The program has also been very active in submitting grants, including an EPSCoR grant, several Iowa Space Grant Consortium grants, and National Space Grant Consortium grants, most of which have been awarded.
M2I has been successful this year, allowing our students to push the boundaries of engineering and even their own boundaries. We are so proud of everything they have been able to accomplish this semester. On behalf of the faculty and staff at Make to Innovate, thank you to all of our alumni for their support.