Parabolic flight microgravity educational activities in Barcelona: The ”Barcelona Zero-G Challenge"

This paper reports on different innovative research and educational activities related to parabolic flights conducted in Barcelona, based at Sabadell Airport and operated by Aeroclub Barcelona-Sabadell, since 2006. A CAP10B single-engine aerobatic aircraft is used, operating in Visual Flight conditions (VFR). Results from test flights have shown that these aircraft provide an environment of hypogravity for small experiments with a gravity quality of at least 0.01 g0 for as long as 8.5 seconds. An experimenter may operate her or his own experiment in parabolic flight from within the aircraft cockpit. A specific flight simulator based on SolidWorks was developed to optimize the maneuvres. This software was used to later train the pilots and get less residual accelerations during the hypogravity period. Results from recent test flights show that these advancements have significally improved the gravity quality of the platform. Sensitivity to wind gusts have been analyzed. According to our analysis, acceptable wind conditions are a maximum of 15 knots of horizontal gusts, whereas thermal and vertical gusts should be avoided. Research campaigns and student campaigns have since 2008 been conducted. A student campaign consists of between 2 and 6 local flights, where the student conducts her or his experiment on board during every flight. A local flight provides up to 12 parabolas for each subject. These educational campaigns are known as the ”Barcelona Zero-G Challenge”, an international contest aimed at motivating students to conduct research in this field. A total of 12 students have flown their experiments on board the aircraft in 3 different educational campaigns (2010, 2011 and 2014), having published their results in relevant symposiums and scientific journals. These campaigns have attracted media attention and have promoted public awareness on aeronautical and space studies. The projects have been carefully peer- reviewed and selected by members of ELGRA (European Low Gravity Research Association) and ESA Education. A new edition of this contest is underway, with the winners expected to fly their experiment in 2017. Furthermore, students from our own University, UPC, have the opportunity of designing and testing their experiments within the framework of this parabolic flights platform. Further information on the contest ”Barcelona Zero-G Challenge” can be found at: window2theuniverse.org. In conclusion, this platform has shown to be excellent for educational and outreach campaigns, and also as a testbed for a proof-of-concept, before accessing other microgravity platforms.Postprint (published version

Building a Culture of Evidence for Community College Student Success: Early Progress in the Achieving the Dream Initiative

Achieving the Dream is a multiyear, national initiative, launched by Lumina Foundation for Education, to help community college students stay in school and succeed. The 82 participating colleges commit to collecting and analyzing data to improve student outcomes, particularly for low-income students and students of color. This baseline report describes the early progress that the first 27 colleges have made after just one year of implementation

Beyond Being There, for All of Us : Exploring Webconferencing and Mobile Remote Presence Devices for Accessible Global Governance

United Nations efforts to support multistakeholder global governance continue to lag for persons with disabilities. Given the expense of face-to-face meetings, accessible ICTs could play an important role, enabling remote participation. However, what types of collaboration technologies best meet UN goals and those of remote participants? This study compares use of webconferencing technologies to mobile remote presence devices (MRP) in a UN conference in Mexico addressing Disaster Risk Reduction. It takes an exploratory action research approach working with UNISDR and the Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) Network #AllofUs to convene four remote hubs (Suva, Dhaka, Geneva, DC), each controlling their own MRP in Cancun and having access to the webconference, along with other remote participants around the world. We ask: Which technologies best support required conference tasks; and what social and technological challenges arise with their use? Under the conditions of this study, both technologies appeared to be complementary

adobe medicus 2007 4 July-August

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/adobe-medicus/1035/thumbnail.jp

Self-Study Report: International Programs

Agricultural Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. has had a long history of involvement in improving education in agriculture throughout the world. Agricultural education faculty have an important role to play in helping developing countries to develop their educational systems. especially in faculty development, Curriculum and organizational leadership

Public Libraries and the Internet 2006

Examines the capability of public libraries to provide and sustain public access Internet services and resources that meet community needs, including serving as the first choice for content, resources, services, and technology infrastructure

Faculty perspectives on rewards and incentives for community-engaged work: A multinational exploratory study

Universities around the world are grappling with the challenge of how to best recognise and support community-engaged teaching, research and scholarship. The status quo reveals two major problems: many faculty members express the sentiment that such work is often discounted, and there is a dearth of available information on faculty perspectives at non-US, especially non-Western, institutions. Understanding faculty needs and perceptions may help institutions improve reward systems and community research and engagement. Also, filling the information gap between the Global North and Global South may help policy-makers and educators make higher education more civically engaged and socially responsible. As a global coalition of universities moving beyond the ivory tower, the Talloires Network (TN) is uniquely positioned to provide support for and conduct research on community-engaged work. To better understand engaged faculty attitudes about rewards and incentives, TN launched a pilot survey involving 14 institutions in 11 countries. All of these institutions are members of TN, an international association of 368 institutions in 77 countries committed to strengthening civic engagement. Thirty-eight respondents were chosen based on diverse recruiting requirements. This exploratory study highlights some common opinions about what kind of faculty work is encouraged; whether institutional policies regarding engaged work exist; and how community-engaged work is perceived by colleagues. More importantly, this study contributes to the design and administration of larger surveys on community-engaged work