In 2019, the 天美影视传媒 was mentioned in 4,143 news articles around the world. Among those, UW experts were quoted 2,290 times: 1,185 in national or international outlets and 1,105 in regional and local outlets.

UW faculty, researchers, graduate students and staff who engage in these interviews offer their expertise and knowledge to the general public through the news media. These interviews can take significant time and effort, but they help demonstrate day after day the important, relevant and innovative work of the university.

Below are a few highlights from UW faculty and researchers quoted in 2019 and the top regional, national and international outlets the UW was mentioned in.

鈥淭echnology will always move faster than lawmakers are able to regulate. The answer to the dilemma is to listen to the experts at the outset, and be vigilant in updating laws to match current technological realities.鈥�

Margaret O鈥橫ara, professor in the Department of History
鈥� July 5, 2019

鈥淵ou can either approach it from the standpoint that there is something fundamentally wrong with black women鈥檚 bodies, or there鈥檚 something wrong with the way we treat black women and their bodies,鈥� Doll says. 鈥淲e are not going to help women, and we are not going to solve this problem, if we don鈥檛 deal with the problem of race and racism.鈥�

Dr. Kemi Doll, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the UW School of Medicine
鈥� October 21, 2019

鈥淎s in the Apollo era, innovations being developed for spaceflight have major benefits, often unforeseen at the time, for society.鈥�

Robert Winglee, professor in the Department of Earth & Space Sciences
鈥� July 25, 2019

鈥淥ur impact on the climate is tied up with population in lots of different ways 鈥� what resources people are using, how much industrial production is going on, how much energy is needed for heating, cooling and transportation.鈥�

Amy Snover, director of the UW Climate Impacts Group
鈥� June 17, 2019

A robotics challenge July 20th at the UW featured twenty-eight middle and high school teams from Forks to Walla Walla and from Bellingham to Olympia. The event marked a half-century since the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and two U.S. astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked its surface.

Each team flew a drone that attempted to drop and retrieve a lunar module designed by the group on a high-resolution map of the moon’s surface. Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots were programmed to explore the surface and retrieve rock samples. The goal is to prepare the next generation of scientists for the “next giant leap”, and broaden the pipeline for future aeronautics careers.

The Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap Student Challenge, or聽, has attracted 4,000 students from across the country since it聽. UW is the regional host for Washington state as well as the national hub for 15 similar events taking place this week across the country. The twenty-eight teams from across Washington qualified for the finals.

The challenge event is the latest outreach effort by NASA’s Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline (NESSP), which seeks to attract underrepresented students into space careers.

More information 补迟听/news/2019/07/17/uw-hosts-student-robotics-challenge-friday-to-mark-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-11-moon-landing/聽 聽 聽 聽

Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer:聽ktaguchi@uw.edu

A robotics challenge July 20th at the UW featured twenty-eight teams of middle and high schoolers from Forks to Walla Walla and from Bellingham to Olympia. The event marked a half-century since the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and two U.S. astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked its surface.

Each team flew a drone that attempted to drop and retrieve a lunar module designed by the group on a high-resolution map of the moon’s surface. Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots were programmed to explore the surface and retrieve rock samples. The goal is to prepare the next generation of scientists for the “next giant leap”, and broaden the pipeline for future aeronautics careers.

The Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap Student Challenge, or聽, has attracted 4,000 students from across the country since it聽. UW is the regional host for Washington state as well as the national hub for 15 similar events taking place this week across the country. The twenty-eight teams from across Washington qualified for the finals.

The challenge event is the latest outreach effort by NASA’s Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline (NESSP), which seeks to attract underrepresented students into space careers.

More information 补迟听/news/2019/07/17/uw-hosts-student-robotics-challenge-friday-to-mark-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-11-moon-landing/聽 聽 聽 聽
Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer:聽ktaguchi@uw.edu

[Note: This post has been updated with photos and video from the July 19 event. More photos are available at .]

This Saturday will mark a half century since the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and two U.S. astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked its surface. At the 天美影视传媒, the NASA-funded , or NEESP, is marking the occasion with a robotics challenge for middle and high school students from across the state.

The Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap Student Challenge, or , has attracted 4,000 students from across the country since it . UW is the regional host for Washington state as well as the national hub for 15 similar events taking place this week across the country. Twenty-eight teams from across Washington have qualified for the finals.

Opening ceremonies will begin Friday at 8:30 a.m. in Kane Hall 130, featuring Rickey Hall, UW’s vice president for Minority Affairs & Diversity, and UW alumna Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, a retired NASA astronaut.

Teams will complete the challenge throughout the day in Kane Hall 130, while using Mary Gates Hall as a warmup space. The five-member teams of 5^th– through 12^th-grade students hail from Forks to Walla Walla, and from Bellingham to Olympia. The day’s activities also include a STEM career panel and lab tours. All the events are open to the public.

The challenge event is the latest outreach effort from the NESSP, which seeks to attract underrepresented students into space careers.

“We provide outreach to students across the country so that they will be inspired to contribute to future developments on the ground and into space,” said NESSP director , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “As in the Apollo era, innovations being developed for spaceflight have major benefits, often unforeseen at the time, for society.”

During Friday’s events, teams will recreate the events of July 20, 1969. Each team will fly a remote-controlled drone from a starting line to land on an 8-by-10-foot map of the moon’s surface in the same spot where Apollo 11 touched down. They will then use a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot they have programmed to explore the lunar surface, bring back a rock sample and leave a culturally significant object. Each team has built a replica of the 1969 lunar lander, and high-school aged teams will also use the drone to retrieve their lunar module and bring it back to the starting line.

Teams have also designed a mission patch and uniform to wear to the challenge. Students will get points both for how accurately they can complete the challenge and for their overall participation in event activities.

“The landing itself is etched in my mind 鈥� even after so many years 鈥� because it demonstrated that extraordinary things could be achieved if people had big visions and worked together,” Winglee said.

Winners are scheduled to be announced at 6 p.m. The top-performing team at each location will get to visit a NASA space center later this summer.

Founded in 2016, NESSP is an outreach and education program that brings hands-on science activities to middle and high school students and educators across the Northwest region.

“The ANGLeS Challenge is a way to diversify STEM by having the communities identify themselves in a creative way, while celebrating the Apollo 11 mission,” said NESSP associate director . “The dream is to have these amazing engineers and scientists who are fully prepared to take on the positions at NASA and other industries that are hungry for local students to participate.”

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For more information, reporters can contact communications officer Chris Wallish at 206-221-7743 or cwallish@uw.edu. Photos are available at . Reporters can access of the event.

On July 20, 1969, the landed the first two people on the surface of the moon. NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first steps and famously proclaimed: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

This July will mark the 50^th anniversary of that landmark event. The 天美影视传媒’s is calling on the next generation of astronauts and aeronautical engineers to recreate the historic event using modern technology.

At a kickoff event Jan. 30 in Kent, Washington, the organizers will officially open the Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap Student Challenge, known for short as the , in collaboration with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“This is a truly interdisciplinary challenge, involving computer programming, robotics, remote sensing and design,” said , director of the Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline and a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “We’re calling it the ‘next giant leap.'”

Teams of students from fifth to 12th grades are invited to participate. Each team will build a replica of the and use a remote-controlled drone to land it on an 8-by-12-foot map of the moon’s surface. Students will modify and program a Lego robot to then explore the lunar surface and bring back a rock sample.

High school students will also use the drone to retrieve the team’s lunar module and bring it back to the starting line.

As in a real-life expedition, teams will also create a mission patch, design uniforms, do event outreach and leave a “culturally significant artifact” on the lunar surface.

Organizers emphasize that it’s a challenge, not a contest. Teams will be judged on multiple criteria and can earn various prizes. No experience is required; registration opens Feb. 1.

The challenge has no entry fee. A $500 kit contains subsidized equipment including the drone and Lego Mindstorms parts, and loaner equipment will be available to schools that qualify. Accommodation at the UW campus will be covered for teams at schools with more than 50 percent subsidized lunches. The organizers will also help all teams with fundraising, and can provide drone and robotics training on request.

“An important aspect of the project is to provide access to NASA science and technology for many of the underserved and underrepresented communities across the U.S.,” Winglee said.

Teams must include one adult to act as the coach, and a five-member “flight crew” all under the age of 18 who will be on the challenge field to pilot the drone, operate the robot, identify rock samples and guide the pilot. Other members of the mixed-grade teams will help with building equipment, designing logos and other off-the-field tasks.

The Northwest challenge will be held in July in Seattle and is open to teams from schools or recognized informal education programs in Washington. Twelve other NASA regional hubs will also host events the week of July 15-20. The winning team from each location will win a trip in early August to visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The initial sponsors of the national challenge are drone maker Force1, NASA, the Museum of Flight, Pacific Science Center and the City of Kent. Organizers are seeking more event sponsors, and volunteers to help advise teams and host the challenges.

The UW-based Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline consortium was created in 2016 with a $10 million that established a “NASA hub” in the Pacific Northwest. The group conducts teacher trainings, especially in underrepresented communities; its past events include a in Ellensburg and a in Seattle.

“Smaller-scale, related STEM efforts in recent years have shown that student participants have increasing interest and skill in doing STEM activities,” Winglee said. “The Apollo effort seeks to expand this effort on a national scale.”

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More information is at . The challenge email is apollo50@uw.edu

Members of the media can contact communications officer Chris Wallish at 206-221-7743 or cwallish@uw.edu.

While many people across the country donned viewing glasses and prepared to watch Monday’s solar eclipse, a group of 100 teenagers from tribes across the Pacific Northwest launched balloons thousands of feet into the air, gaining a novel perspective of the eclipse 鈥� and the chance to send meaningful artifacts to the edge of space during a memorable moment in history.

The high school students released their balloons from Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs land in north central Oregon, directly in the that allows viewers to see the moon completely cover the sun. Close to 400 people, mainly tribal members and students, gathered to watch. The event, organized by 天美影视传媒-based and the , was the largest effort involving Native American tribes during the eclipse.

In addition to launching the giant weather balloons, students from each school attached culturally significant items, called payloads, to the balloons and sent them high into the sky. Their artifacts nearly reached space before returning to the ground.

“This is the first time many of the students get to participate in a cutting-edge experiment of this type,” said the consortium’s director, , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “Seeing their own payloads at the rim of space is quite exciting. This different perspective will hopefully awaken other ideas for gaining different perspectives on their own lives and their own career paths.”

Over the past couple of years, consortium staff visited many of the schools participating in the eclipse balloon launch, introducing students to space research and various NASA projects. The goal is to bring STEM-related topics to the students in culturally relevant ways, said outreach specialist Isabel Carrera Zamanillo.

The eclipse project is a tangible way to further involve these students.

“Participation in this eclipse is just a next step for students,” said Carrera Zamanillo, who is also a graduate fellow with the UW’s Center for Environmental Politics. “This is a continuing effort from two years of visiting tribes, and it is a nice event where we can congregate together.”

Each of the 12 student teams created a small payload to attach to the high-altitude balloons. These items are important artifacts to students and included carved wooden instruments, feathers, whistles and a small paddle. Some students also designed electronic sensors that were placed in the balloons and delivered data on temperature, altitude and distance traveled as they soared high into the sky.

The balloons can reach altitudes of 110,000 feet and were fitted with cameras and GPS trackers. The four balloons were released in pairs before the start of the total eclipse, with the hope that the cameras would capture a unique perspective.

As expected, the balloons popped after two and a half hours of flight, and parachutes helped the artifacts and electronic equipment fall safely to the ground. The items landed about 20 miles from the launch site and teams planned to recover them with the help of GPS. About 35 UW-affiliated volunteers, including undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty, joined consortium staff in Oregon to help with the event.

NASA released several similar weather balloons in conjunction with the solar eclipse 鈥� including a launch off the Oregon coast 鈥� that intended to provide different views along the path of the eclipse.

The consortium’s leaders hope this experience will encourage students to build payloads that could hitch a ride on current space-flight missions. Blue Origin, for example, has carrying capacity for such artifacts, Winglee said.

“We can encourage the students and say, ‘Look, you’ve done high-altitude balloons, why don’t you go all the way?’ I think this is a steppingstone for students,” he said.

The new , or NESSP, has begun a $10 million,聽five-year cooperative agreement with NASA that broadens existing programs and launches new efforts throughout Washington, Oregon and Montana, with a particular focus on underserved and underrepresented communities.

“The goal is to create a virtual NASA hub in the Northwest to provide excellence in the teaching of STEM disciplines, from middle school to high school, and provide a conduit for students from across the region, including from underserved and underrepresented groups, to move into STEM careers,” said principal investigator , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences.

The program establishes a regional network that will increase collaboration to boost the capacity for STEM education and experiences in the early years.

Examples of the program’s efforts include:

• Expanding the program 鈥� an in-depth space science experience for high school juniors that includes an online UW course and a week at the Museum of Flight 鈥� to enroll students from Montana and Oregon.
• Supporting the , a Mukilteo-based group that trains black students in aviation, to incorporate NASA curriculum and do outreach to rural areas and tribal nations across the three states.
• Funding the in Seattle to hold one-day and week-long versions of its science camps in other locations in the three states, and expand the reach of its program.
• Offering in-person teacher training workshops in each state in Earth and space sciences.
• Providing virtual training opportunities for K-12 teacher development, with options for teachers to share STEM resources and curriculum.
• Creating more opportunities for high school students to do hands-on summer research projects on college and university campuses.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth in the Northwest region of private-sector aerospace companies,” Winglee said. “Proving a conduit for students to move into those kinds of careers is important.”

He and , a UW staff member who is associate director of the Washington Space Grant Consortium, will visit the three states this spring to do rocketry demonstrations in tribal communities and conduct teacher training with NASA curriculum. In April, they will visit the Yakama Nation in Washington and the Crow and Blackfeet nations in Montana. They will also make a similar visit this spring to Oregon.

Participating organizations include the ; Pacific Science Center; the , an existing UW-based effort to support aerospace and STEM education; the ; the ; Montana State University; Oregon State University; Montana’s ; the in Bozeman; Portland’s ; the South Metro-Salem ; the ; in Bellingham; in Toppenish, Washington; ; and K-12 school districts including and , Washington; , Oregon; and Washington state’s Educational Service District and Educational Service District.

The group held its kickoff meeting in January at the Museum of Flight. , a UW research associate professor in Earth and space sciences, is associate director of Washington Space Grant and co-principal investigator for this cooperative agreement.

The effort is one of 27 awards selected last fall by to support NASA science education at institutions to encourage STEM careers.

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For more information, contact Robert Winglee at 206-685-8160 or winglee@uw.edu, or Washington Space Grant program manager April Huff at 206-543-0213 or alhuff@uw.edu.