SU students invited to contribute ideas for NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge

This weekend, Syracuse University students will have the opportunity to participate in a student-run brainstorming session to produce ideas and data that could help NASA create practical applications to benefit humanity. 

SU is one of three institutions invited by NASA to contribute concepts as part of the International Space Apps Challenge, which encourages scientists and concerned citizens from around the world—and in space—to create, build and invent new solutions in order to address challenges of global importance. The challenge is a demonstration of NASA’s commitment to the Open Government Partnership, a global effort to make governments better. 

Katy Jeremko, a junior industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Design, is coordinating the two-day collaborative brainstorming session—also known as a charrette—at SU’s Warehouse. Open to any SU student, the charrette will address various “problem sets” posed by NASA, including the livelihood of astronauts in space as well as the needs and development of different civilizations on Earth and the peaceful co-habitation of innovation. 

Jeremko learned about the Space Apps Challenge through a friend, SU alumnus and NASA technology strategist Sean Herron ’11, who connected her with a colleague who works on initiatives that will change the shape of innovation. 

“I became involved in organizing the charrette when I was asked to form a focus group of motivated students to collaborate and ponder the Space Apps Challenges,” says Jeremko. “I chose this to be the opportunity to propose a design charrette, which we are accustomed to here at The Warehouse, giving students freedom to think, trust and give credibility to every idea.” 

The findings of the charrette will be compiled into a video and submitted to NASA. 

For more information about the International Space Apps Challenge, visit http://open.nasa.gov/appschallenge/.