CSEWI Programs

Aerospace Community Development

STEM Inventory STEMTRAX NASA Centennial Challenges spacer SEARCH

CIC BASE STEM Mentoring Program spacer Future Programs

STEM Inventory: Be part of our comprehensive STEM database!

Make sure your science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program is in our inventory! CSEWI is creating an inventory of STEM programs occurring within California and nationwide. If you know of a STEM program please fill out our questionnaire. Your response will be analyzed by our STEM CAP committee to determine if the program is a best practice – if so, we’ll highlight your program in our statewide STEM Collaborative Action Plan, while basic information of all STEM programs submitted will be presented in a comprehensive on-line database, coming soon! Please share your program with us by filling out our STEM questionnaire.

More about the STEM Inventory (PDF).

Go to the STEM Inventory.

CIC BASE (BAsics of System Engineering)
On September 8th and 9th, Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo will be hosting a free introductory course in Fundamentals of System Engineering. This course is targeted towards engineers and professionals who have the need and/or desire to enhance their knowledge, skills, and competencies in Systems Engineering.
Click here for the details.

Stanford Model STEM Mentoring Program
The Stanford Model STEM Mentoring Program is an outreach program for grade school students that assist teachers in meeting their testing goals in science and math by bringing dedicated local scientists and engineers into the classroom. Mentors will work with these students under the direction of the teacher 2-4 hours/wk providing technical support for class experiments that demonstrates topics of importance to that grade level in science and math.

Our mentors work with their class for the full school year. The next year the mentor will follow the
students to the new grade. The mentor will continue with as many of these same students as possible each year until the students graduate from high school. The program is initially targeted to fourth and fifth grade
students.

For additional information on the STEM Mentoring Program click here.

STEMTRAX- The Industry-to-Education Connection

Welcome to the STEMTRAX; a network that connects California aerospace industry to California universities. Is your company looking for a University-conducted research and development project? Does your aerospace department have a project, but needs industry support or adding real world projects? Use our network and on-line collaborative workspace to search for the answer to your needs. Register today.

Overall Goal of STEMTRAX:

To improve the partnership between aerospace industry and universities in the California Innovation Corridor to 1) enhance the California academic community’s aerospace-related education and 2) increase the amount of highly-trained technical and professionally developed students capable of meeting California’s aerospace workforce needs.

Near term focus:

Improve Access to Space (launch vehicles and payloads)

Roles & Responsibilities of STEMTRAX members:

University Department – Actively contribute to STEMTRAX, identify R&D capabilities, and communicate opportunities to enhance relevant educational experience
CSA/CSEWI – Facilitate the university/industry partnership, identify successes/challenges, administer the collaborative workspace, and improve the STEMTRAX model.

Students Organizations – Students are encouraged to represent aerospace-related student groups to participate in STEMTRAX. Individual students may search/participate in the collaborative working space.

Educators – Educators are encouraged to represent their aerospace-related department. Individual teachers may search/participate in the collaborative working space.

Industry – Actively contribute to STEMTRAX, identify R&D needs, and communicate opportunities for funded effort by universities.

Join STEMTRAX!

Universities and aerospace companies interested in pursuing partnership opportunities are asked to register to have access to our network and collaborative workspace. Launch into action now, register for the STEMTRAX program here.

Relevant Upcoming Events

CubeSat Developers Workshop – Apr 9-11, 2008 – Cal Poly SLO
Small Payload Rideshare Workshop – May 20-22, 2008 – Wallops Island, VA
Small Satellite Conference – Aug 11-14, 2008 – Utah State Univ., Logan, UT

NASA Centennial Challenges

Selected to serve as an Allied Organization by the NASA Centennial Challenges program, the California Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI), with Co-Host California Space Authority, administers the Regolith Excavation Challenge and the Moon Regolith Oxygen (MoonROx) Challenge.

The Regolith Excavation Challenge promotes the development of new technologies to excavate lunar regolith. Excavation is a necessary first step towards lunar resource utilization, and the unique physical properties of lunar regolith make excavation a difficult technical challenge.

The MoonROx Challenge is designed to promote the development of technologies and processes to extract breathable oxygen from lunar regolith on the scale of a pilot plant.

Advances in lunar regolith excavation and efficient production of breathable oxygen from in-situ lunar resources have the potential to contribute significantly to the nation's space exploration operations.

For more information on the Regolith Excavation Challenge click here.

For information on the MoonROx Challenge click here.

The Scientists and Engineers—Alternative Routes to Certification and Hiring (SEARCH) is a project managed by the California Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI), and funded by the California Space Authority as part of the California Innovation Corridor "Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED)" grant. SEARCH is designed to assist mid-career changers in the science, math and engineering fields to become public school teachers in both academic and vocational subjects. Due to the decreasing number of students interested in pursuing careers in science, math and engineering, California has found itself in need for many well-educated, technically-oriented, professionals to prepare a strong technical workforce for the development and production industries that fuel the state’s economy. In order to accomplish this goal SEARCH, with support from the Troops to Teachers program, provides a “fast-track” approach to get talented professionals into the classroom.

For more information on SEARCH, visit the SEARCH Homepage or check out the SEARCH Brochure.

If you like to know more about the Troops to Teachers program, please visit their homepage.

Space-Related
Higher Education Program