{"id":135559,"date":"2023-06-01T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T14:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=135559"},"modified":"2023-06-01T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T14:08:27","slug":"ucf-alumna-student-selected-for-nasa-graduate-research-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-alumna-student-selected-for-nasa-graduate-research-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Alumna, Student Selected for NASA Graduate Research Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Marley Albright \u201923<\/strong> will take her college career to new heights this fall through the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) award. She is one of approximately 60 U.S. college students who have been selected for this honor, which covers the tuition and fees for a graduate-level program and includes a fellowship at a NASA facility.<\/p>\n<p>The NSTGRO is a highly competitive award given to students with the potential to support NASA\u2019s goal of developing new technologies to further the nation\u2019s science, space exploration and economic future. Students who are selected are paired with a NASA scientist or engineer who mentors them as they complete a research project. Albright says she is honored to be selected for this opportunity and is thankful for the people at UCF who helped her attain it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am grateful to my faculty advisor, Dr. Subith Vasu, for the opportunity to work on research as an undergraduate student in his lab,\u201d Albright says. \u201cI am also thankful for the many postdoctoral researchers and graduate students who have mentored me over the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a NSTGRO fellow, Albright will put her research experience to good use as she develops chemical models of thruster plumes for moon and Mars landers. The goal is to find less-toxic alternatives to hydrazine, the propellant most commonly used for landing applications.<\/p>\n<p>While Albright completes her project, she\u2019ll continue her education at UCF in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/mechanical-engineering-phd\/\">mechanical engineering doctoral program<\/a>. After graduation, she plans to start a career in the aerospace industry, developing new technologies that will make space exploration safer and more cost-effective and efficient. But growing up, she never thought this career path was within her reach \u2014 until a high school teacher changed her perspective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned that success in an engineering career depends on developing a solid work ethic and being resilient amid technical challenges,\u201d Albright says. \u201cThis new outlook inspired me to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering and follow my passion for space exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During a tour of UCF, Albright says she was inspired by the students working in the machine shop and the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab and couldn\u2019t wait to get involved. She enrolled at UCF for her undergraduate degree, worked on several research projects in the Vasu Lab and graduated with her bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>As a student, she never hesitated to get involved and took advantage of UCF\u2019s resources, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/honors.ucf.edu\/\">Burnett Honors College<\/a> Research Match Week and the <a href=\"https:\/\/academicsuccess.ucf.edu\/our\/\">Office of Undergraduate Research<\/a> Summer Research Fellowship. Those resources paid off as Albright was also offered the 2023 National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship, although she ultimately chose to take the NASA NSTGRO award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a dream come true for me to collaborate with NASA to develop new propulsion technology,\u201d Albright says. \u201cI hypothesize that the research will help make future missions to the moon and Mars more efficient and safer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NSTGRO is a highly competitive award given to students with the potential to support NASA\u2019s goal of developing new technologies to further the nation\u2019s science, space exploration and economic future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":135561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23,24],"tags":[973,17393,4361],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-135559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","category-science-technology","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-department-of-mechanical-and-aerospace-engineering","tag-space"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Alumna, Student Selected for NASA Graduate Research Award | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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