2017 RASC-AL Aerospace Concepts Design Competition

Written by Nathan Smith on August 4, 2016. Posted in Grants & Contests, STEM and STEAM.

NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace announce the 2017 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage Aerospace Concepts competition. RASC-AL is a design project competition for university-level engineering students and faculty.

The 2017 RASC-AL competition challenges teams to develop new concepts that leverage innovations to improve our ability to work more effectively in microgravity, by responding to one of four themes:
— Lightweight Exercise Suite.
— Airlock Design.
— Commercially enabled LEO/Mars Habitable Module.
— Logistics Delivery System.

Potentially, NASA could implement concepts derived from the design projects.

Interested teams are encouraged to submit a notice of intent by Nov. 8, 2016, and teams must submit an abstract for their proposed project by Jan. 19, 2017.

NEW THIS YEAR: As a part of the abstract proposal submission process, teams will be required to include a two-minute video. The intent is for the video to augment each team’s abstract proposal by including animation, graphics, or other creative ways of showcasing unique aspects of their proposed concept.

The 2017 RASC-AL Competition will implement a two-tiered down-select process. A steering committee of NASA and industry experts will evaluate the abstract and video proposals and select as many as 20 undergraduate or graduate teams to move to the next phase of the competition. Based on evaluation of five- to seven-page mid-project papers submitted by these teams in mid-March, the field will be narrowed once again to 12-16 teams who will be selected for the final round of the competition. The finalists will present their concepts to the panel of judges (the RASC-AL Steering Committee) at the RASC-AL Forum in June 2017 in Florida.

The RASC-AL competition is open to full-time undergraduate or graduate students majoring in engineering or science at an accredited college or university. University design teams must include one faculty or industry advisor with a university affiliation and two or more undergraduate or graduate students. A group of universities also may collaborate on a design project entry. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged.

For more information about this competition, visit http://rascal.nianet.org.

If you have questions about this competition, please contact the RASC-AL team at rascal@nianet.org.

Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith is Director of Technology for the College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University. In that role, he also directs The Adele & Dale Young Education Technology Center (The YETC) located in room 170 of the Education Building on Utah State University's Logan campus. The YETC is a combination student openaccess computer facility, a K12 curriculum materials library, a NASA Educator Resource Center for Utah, and a technology training center. Nathan served eight years (20042012) on the Board of Directors for the Utah Coalition for Education Technology (UCET) He was reelected in 2014 to serve another two year term on the board. A former elementary school teacher, Nathan has taught students every age from young children to senior citizens. He has had the opportunity beginning in 2011 to train international high school teachers from all over the world about technology in education, through the U.S. State