I am the sponsor of the Clear Springs NASA Biomedical HUNCH Team. Our team was National Finals Champions in 2023, 2024, and 2025. We competed against 80 teams from around the nation at NASA Johnson Space Center.
National Finalists earn a letter of recommendation from NASA.
Eight of our students were chosen to present to hundreds of scientists and engineers from around the world at the 2025 NASA IWS, an international aerospace conference.
About
- In this year-long program, students will work with NASA mentors to consider physiological changes that happen to humans in space and create solutions to mitigate those changes.
- Students design and build a prototype to address a biomedical challenge from NASA
- Program meetings and activities will take place outside instructional hours or during Lightning Lunch.
- See slides below for more detailed information
2023, 2024, & 2025 NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
Projects
- Mars Transit Habitat Food Storage
- Packaging Designs for Medications
- Medical Inventory System
- Diagnostic Medical Tool Design
- Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Medical Diagnostic System
- Lunar Smart Adaptive Habitat Design with AI Psychological Monitoring for Crew Adaptive Positive Mental Health
- Portable IV Fluid
- Innovative Nutrition to Prevent Illness in Space
Timeline
- Aug – Sept: Introduce program, students decide which project fits their interest and begin researching, NASA HUNCH mentors meet with students
- Sept – Nov: Mentors begin visiting schools or meeting with students by Zoom to help students understand the projects and constraints. Students may go through several changes and iterations as they develop their idea.
- Nov – Dec: Preliminary Design Review. Students present their idea and show their prototypes to mentors and engineers. Students should be listening for what is good about their design and what can be improved.
- Jan: Student make adjustments and finalize designs
- Feb – Mar: Critical Design Review. Students present their improved prototypes to mentors and engineers. After seeing all of the projects at the CDRs across the country, HUNCH will send out a SemiFinalist List that shows the top, interesting designs, then HUNCH will send out the Invite List. Students who make the Finalist List will be invited to Johnson Space Center for the Final Design Review.
- Apr: Final Design Review will be held at the Saturn V Rocket Building at Johnson Space Center where students will present their prototypes to NASA engineers and astronauts
Lowman Anatomy 