How USU became known as Utah 'Space' University
By Kevin Nielsen
March 12, 2005 | "Shuttle's Next Payload:
Your Homework" the sign says as student after student
walks through the Taggart Student Center.
How did Utah State University in Cache Valley come
to be one of the most prolific aerospace universities
in the United States? It's all thanks to the government
and two programs that it helped to start.
Through the Rocky
Mountain Space Grant Consortium and the Space
Dynamics Lab, Utah State has made a name for itself
in the aerospace field.
It all started back in the 1800s with the Morrill
Acts of 1862 and 1890. These provided lands and funding
for states to start universities or colleges that would
help the working class get an education without traveling
to a major city where there was a university. Thanks
to those acts Utah State was founded in 1888 and later
opened branch campuses in every county of Utah.
Following the Land Grant colleges came the lesser
known Sea Grant colleges then in 1988 Congress passed
the National Space Grant Act. The act formed the National
Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, which by
1992 had 52 independent Space Grant consortia.
Utah State is one of the founding members of the Rocky
Mountain Space Grant Consortium along with the University
of Utah, the University of Denver and Thiokol. Currently
the consortium has grown to include many other entities
from the state of Utah including the Space Dynamics
Lab.
The consortium exists to help bring students into
fields that will help in the aerospace industry physics,
math, chemistry, etc. Through outreach programs, scholarships
and fellowships the consortium helps to steer students
toward the aerospace profession.
"We use the money to make science more exciting and
math more interesting," Outreach Director John Vanderford
said.
Originally, money was given to recent high school
graduates as part of a scholarship but Vanderford said
it became apparent there were better ways to spend the
money. So from then on, Vanderford said the consortium
has been using money to focus primarily on fourth to
seventh graders to help get them interested as they
have the opportunity to focus on certain classes through
high school.
Primarily the outreach program focuses on teachers
because if you focus on getting teachers excited about
those subjects then their students will be also, Vanderford
said. Which is a big jump since some school districts
have 25:1 student-teacher ratios.
Besides giving workshops to students there are several
programs that help keep children interested in the core
aerospace subjects.
One good example is Project
Starshine. A sphere with mirrors all over it was
sent into orbit while schools all over the country were
given mirrors so when the satellite passed over they
would be able to tell.
"It was a gimmick to get people excited," Vanderford
said.
Other activities the consortium participates in are
the Pathway to Mars program, the Science Olympiad, science
fairs and they can give over 20 different outreach programs.
All this just to get people into the aerospace fields,
once the students get to college they can receive scholarships
or fellowships. Through grant money from National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) and the department a
fellowship is given to a graduate student.
Ricky Fielding, the current recipient of the consortium's
fellowship, will receive his masters in electrical engineering
this spring.
"The space grant is designed so there are more engineers
entering the space arena," Fielding said. "It provides
hard-to-get experience."
You could call the consortium the minor league for
the Space Dynamics Lab (SDL). They help provide the
engineers and scientists that actually do the work.
SDL was formed in 1982 when the Upper Air Research
Laboratory and the Electro-Dynamics Laboratory combined.
"Our purpose is to make stuff the government needs,"
SDL Deputy Director Harry Ames said. "In order to execute
programs the government wants, like space exploration
or defense."
SDL's Deputy Director Harry Ames compares it to Boeing
or any other aerospace company. Ames said SDL usually
has around 20 bids out on certain contracts at anytime.
SDL's bids usually come in between 50 and 15 percent
lower than the other companies vying for the contracts,
Ames said.
Even with the connection to the business world it
helps to have an arm in the university cookie jar too.
SDL is one of 11 university affiliated research centers
in the nation which means they have a special contract
with the Department of Defense dealing with certain
core proficiencies where no public bids need to be sought,
Ames said. This doesn't mean the Department of Defense
can't ask for other bids but they always have the option
to give the contract to SDL.
At SDL there are between 80 and 100 students working
at anytime on projects, which is about 25 percent of
the workforce. Some are undergraduates but the majority
are graduate students.
While 25 percent of the workforce are students, half
of the employees received at least one of their degrees
from Utah State, Ames said. This helps to keep the lab
stocked with people since SDL doesn't offer as many
perks as other aerospace companies, Ames said. Stock
options and company cars aren't viable options that
SDL can give their employees, yet they are still able
to get high quality employees.
Thanks to the space program that has grown here in
Cache Valley more than $30 million are put into the
valley economy each year by SDL alone. SDL is also an
asset to the university as it consistently makes money
and is never an item on the state's budget.
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