Vietnamese-born female student explores Mars with NASA

Ngo Mai Thy, a Vietnamese-born student in Mathematics and Engineering at Portland Community College, USA, has won a place in the Space Scholar Program for NASA colleges.

Ngo Mai Thy, a student at Portland Community College, USA. Photo: pcc.edu.

Under this program, she was able to study, study and design exploration robots in the universe. Earlier this year, she attended a professional workshop at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and was fully covered.

According to the Portland Community College website, Mai Thy is one of 80 community college students in 28 states in the US and Puerto Rico participating in two NASA conferences in Pasadena and Johnson Space Center in Houston. This NASA program aims to encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). More than 330 students across the United States have registered for this program.

" I am very grateful for this opportunity, " Wu said. " The highlight of the trip was that I was allowed to attend a video seminar with engineers and scientists at NASA, looking at the results from the Opportunity robot that is exploring Mars. We saw them planning. for the mission and how to order the robot to perform the task in the next few days, although most of us do not fully understand the technology and 'space language', but I really Open your eyes when witnessing the whole process ".

Ngo Mai Thy attended NASA conference. Photo: pcc.edu.

Ngo is planning to transfer to Portland State University for a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She was selected to participate in the program after completing an online assignment and an essay throughout the school year. When attending the seminar, she must complete a summary of goals, tasks, time, budget and preliminary sketches for exploration robots and missions on Mars.

"We also have the opportunity to contact NASA engineers via online chat, so they can help us with online lessons , " Wu said. " At first when we got there, we were divided into 4 different groups and worked on an imaginary robot building project. Each team had a NASA engineer to advise. This makes the project become more practical " .

"Our robots are designed to go through all kinds of terrain and different obstacles on Mars, then collect all kinds of rocks to test for signs of life on the red planet ," Ngo added. " We work from early morning to late evening. I know very little about Mars and the exploration robots. Now, I understand Mars more than any other planet, except the earth ."

NASA's goal is to continue to invest in educational programs to attract and retain students in the STEM industry - vital in NASA's future missions.

" This experience helps students understand what they learn on campus and apply real-life questions, simulate what NASA engineers and scientists do every day ," Leland Melvin - education officer at NASA said. " It will help them develop the skills needed to solve future problems ."