Digital Commons Network^™

Nanouhfcomms Mission Overview, Nazia Mozaffar, Salwan Damman, Ryan Hiser, Lizbeth Durbin, Jose Ruvalcaba, Alejandro Castro, David Sadowski, Dmitriy Obukhov, Brendan Hill

Small Satellite Conference

The NanoUHFComms experiment seeks to demonstrate the ability to detect and correct Doppler offsets caused by the relative high velocity between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) spacecraft and terrestrial nodes. The payload includes a Rincon Research Corporation AstroSDR with external Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) for the receive band and an external power amplifier for the transmit band. The uplink and downlink bands are combined with a diplexer before connecting to a common antenna mounted on the spacecraft. The demonstrations planned for the orbit testing include a relay mode which will detect and correct the Doppler offset of an uplink signal, translate …

A Smallsat In Vleo: The Orion Kraken Approach, Chad Fish, Crystal Frazier, Sun-Hee Goldsberry, Katie Nyland, Will Armijo, Raj Patel, Elijah Vance, Adam Reynolds, Nathan Tipton, Kevin Quintana, Sam Clowes, Rachel Stutz, Keith Underwood, Jared Stromberg, Justin Berger, Erich Hoover, Andrew Irvine, Ali Wise, Christian Frazier, Derek Taylor, Kong Yang, Tracy Cueto, Wes Leong, Greg Ushomirsky, Charles Swenson, Paul Bernhart, Ron Reedy, Tim Minton, Mitchell Weins, Kent Frankovich

Small Satellite Conference

The Orion Space Solutions' Kraken Mission, sponsored by DARPA and implemented by a science and engineering team led by Orion Space Solutions, will make in-situ and remote sensing space weather observations from Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). The mission instrument suite will include Langmuir Probes, RF Impedance Probes, HF Sounders, Atomic Oxygen Sensors, Science Magnetometers, Floating Potential Probes, and Science Accelerometers. Long-term (approximately 4-6 month lifetime), repeated measurements of plasma density and other plasma and neutral parameters in this region are very rare, and the Kraken data is expected to contribute considerably to space weather and science modeling of VLEO. …

The Cospar-1 Spacecraft: Advancing Space Science And Capacity Building Through International Collaboration, Amal Chandran, Hex20 Ltd., Carlos Gabriel, Loren C. Chang

Small Satellite Conference

The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) is the world's leading organization for advancing space science. The COSPAR Panel for a Constellation of Small Satellites (PCSS) was assembled in 2020 to examine how emerging CubeSat and small satellite technology could help solve outstanding questions in Space Weather, Earth Climate change, and Radiation Belt studies through constellations of miniature spacecraft. The COSPAR-1 spacecraft is a 3U CubeSat carrying a Solar Spectral Sensor from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder to observe solar output across the UV-to-IR spectrum, an Earth Radiation Sensor from LATMOS in …

The Landolt Mission Payload: An Artificial Star For Precision Astronomy, Peter Pachowicz, Peter Plavchan, Gabrielle Belle, Jay Deorukhkar, Philip Cunio, Eliad Peretz, John Mather, Peter Kurczynski, Angelle Tanner, Susana Deustua, Brian Alberding, Joseph Rice, Thomas Michaud-Baeyens, Jean-Thomomas Landry, Marc-Andre Boucher, David Ciardi, Mike Lund, Justin Albert, Greg Alderling, Brian Stalder, Daniel Stevens, Jamie Tayar, Daniel Kuesters, Tabetha Boyajian

Small Satellite Conference

The Landolt Mission represents a significant advancement in space-based instrumentation, serving as NASA’s first hybrid space mission. Central to the mission is a smallsat deployed in Geostationary Orbit (GEO), carrying the SI Traceable Absolute Radiometer [STAR] comprised of two Laser Instruments (LI) and an Element Wheel technology demonstrator. The LI utilizes six specialized Laser Trays to project SI-calibrated light beams at various wavelengths into ground telescopes. By creating a stable, SI-traceable calibration source, the Landolt mission aims to provide an unprecedented level of precision in astronomical observations. These advancements are expected to facilitate transformative discoveries in exoplanet host stars, supernova …

Noaa Nesdis Commercial Data Program Using Small Satellites For Space-Based Environmental Monitoring Data, Marc Gasbarro, Natalie Laudier, Harshesh Patel, Gerald Peltzer, Chunhui Pan

Small Satellite Conference

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) Commercial Data Program (CDP) successfully engages with the private sector to acquire commercial space-based environmental observation data to diversify, streamline, and improve NOAA's observations and to meet NOAA’s mission objectives. The NESDIS CDP manages two lines of effort, the Commercial Data Pilot projects to demonstrate the quality and impact of commercial data on NOAA applications and the Commercial Data Purchases to support operational weather and space weather applications. NESDIS CDP leverages commercial companies’ use of innovative Small Satellite (SmallSat) collection platforms. NESDIS CDP procures data …

Odin: Optomechanical Distributed Instrument For Inertial Sensing And Navigation, Mohanad Warrayat, Jackson Dahn, Ramses Miranda, Andrea Nelson, Jeremiah Stoddart, Miguel Dovale, Jose Sanjuan, Felipe Guzman, Daniel Selva

Small Satellite Conference

ODIN (Optomechanical Distributed Instrument for Inertial sensing and Navigation) is a gyroscope-free inertial measurement unit based on a cube of six monolithic fused silica wafers which complete a twelve-axis sensing capability, i.e., three linear, three angular, and six centripetal acceleration measurements. ODIN will fly as a secondary payload on the GRATTIS (Gravitational Reference Advanced Technology Test in Space) mission, slated for launch in February of 2027, led by the University of Florida and funded by the NASA InVEST program. By the end of the GRATTIS mission, it is expected that ODIN will reach an exit TRL-7.

The primary objective of …

Towards Designing And Performing Biological Sex: Explorations Of The Cyborg And The Inanimate, Beja Puskas

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

While gender has been largely debunked as a form of performance, biological sex remains an irreducible point of departure. This essay challenges biological sex as a category through the Foucauldian lens of bio-power and technologies of the self. It merges findings from interviews surrounding intersectionally marginalized experiences with menstruation with trans and disability studies. Utilizing Mel Chen’s theory of animacies, and Margrit Shildrick’s human-technology amalgamation theory, this essay blurs the biological-artificial binary. While there are obstacles, limiting what is biologically possible for humans, the body can be significantly augmented through imagination, body modification, and the invention of newly gendered practices.

Acs3 Results And Lesson Learned, Philip Shih, Olive Stohlman, Ivan Bertaska, Andres Dono Perez

Small Satellite Conference

ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) was a technology demonstration mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration¹, to demonstrate the deployment of a solar sail of size 80m² from a new NASA-developed compact deployable composite boom² packaged in a 12U CubeSat. The extended objective of the mission was to perform attitude control and orbit maneuvering. ACS3 was successfully launched on 24 April 2024 local time via Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B in Mahia, New Zealand. Following four months of commissioning operations, the solar sail was deployed on 28 August …

Recursive Artificial Intelligence Training And The Homogenization Of Discourse, Sam Hemesath

Political Science Honors Projects

As Large Language Models (LLMs) begin to produce text on the internet, the same repository from which training data for LLMs are scraped, LLMs will start to train on data they produced. What will happen to future models when LLMs are trained on their own text? Scholars have raised concerns about the possibility that LLMs homogenize language and discourse. These concerns are further exaggerated as LLMs begin to infect their own repositories, marking a turn from human-produced training data sets. In this paper I simulate a recursive training loop by prompting a popular open-source LLM with 1000 prompts and using …

The Pandora Smallsat: Overview Of The First Six Months In Orbit, Jessie Dotson, Elisa Quintana, Knicole Colón, Thomas Barclay, Christina Hedges, Ben Hord, Trevor Foote, Jordan Karburn, Pete Supsinkas, Lance Simms, Joe Renaud, Julie Moquin

Small Satellite Conference

The Pandora SmallSat was selected as an inaugural NASA Astrophysics Pioneers mission. The Astrophysics Pioneers program is tasked with performing compelling astrophysics science at lower cost while simultaneously providing space mission experience to early career researchers and engineers. The science goal of Pandora is to study transiting exoplanets and their host stars by collecting long duration, simultaneous visible photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy. This unique dataset will enable Pandora to disentangle the contributions from stellar activity which contaminate the exoplanet spectrum so we can search for water in exoplanet atmospheres.

The Pandora SmallSat successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on …

Gray Jay Pathfinder: One Year Of Maritime And Airborne Vessel Monitoring With A Formation-Flying Constellation Of Microsatellites, Erica Peterson, Nicolaas Handojo, Nima Assadian, Jacob Von Chorus, Jeremy Hawke, Andrew Barlow, Sanjeev Narayanaswamy, Abigail Macgillivray, Alex Kiar, Nathan Cole, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

Gray Jay Pathfinder (GJP) is an experimental microsatellite constellation that has been designed, built, and operated by the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL), for Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). GJP launched in January 2025, and consists of three microsatellites, developed using SFL’s 30kg DEFIANT platform, flying in formation in a sun-synchronous orbit at a 510km altitude. All three spacecraft carry radio frequency (RF) payloads capable of receiving raw spectrum in the VHF, UHF, L, S, and X radar bands. The RF payloads include a combination of in-house designed and COTS antennas, in-house designed antenna front ends, a payload computer with …

Disksat: On-Orbit Performance And Lessons Learned From The Inaugural Flight Of Two-Dimensional Satellites, Darren Rowen, Catherine Venturini, Garrett Kinum, Brian Hardy, Joseph Gangestad, Lisa Toda, Chris Day, Thomas Pridy, Eddson Alcid, Ziba Shahriary

Small Satellite Conference

DiskSat is a novel spacecraft design that uses a disk-shaped form factor, 1 meter in diameter but only 2.5 cm in depth, to provide unprecedented power-to-mass ratio in a nanosatellite and the potential to operate long-term in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). The inaugural flight of four DiskSats launched on 18 December 2025 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on an Electron rocket, which delivered the satellites to a 550-km altitude orbit at an inclination of 45 deg. Developing DiskSat’s two-dimensional form factor presented a myriad of challenges for power generation, thermal management, attitude control, and deployment that could only be …

Adaptive Rational Approximation In Dynamic Economic Models: A Novel Application Of The Aaa Algorithm To Economic Growth, Adaye Sosthene Yvan N'Guettia

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

I study adaptive rational approximation for fixed points that arise in infinite-horizon dynamic programming. I integrate the Adaptive Antoulas–Anderson (AAA) algorithm into Bellman- and Euler-based fixed-point solvers by recomputing a barycentric rational interpolant at each update. In addition to standard AAA, which selects support points from interpolation residuals, I study a residual-weighted variant in which Bellman,Euler, or KKT diagnostics act as secondary weights on the greedy pivot rule. This alignment of approximation adaptivity with the underlying equilibrium conditions can concentrate degrees of freedom in regions of steep curvature, sharp transitions in localbehavior, and other localized features that typically degrade polynomial …

Unsustainable Stories: Agricultural Knowledge On The Great Plains, 1880-1934, Philomena Shuffelton-Sobe

History Honors Projects

This thesis explores stories about how people farmed and learned about farming on the Great Plains from 1880-1920 through three inter-connected narratives: the Allotment system, agricultural education programs at federal Indian Boarding Schools, and the rapid rise and fall of the Dry Farming movement. These systems were built on stories about how people should live with and on the land that promoted unsustainable, destructive ways of farming and knowledge production. This scholarship places Assimilation Era agricultural education for Native and non-Native farmers within the context of the increasing reliance on systems and science and the institutionalization of agricultural knowledge.

Effects Of Bx795, Gsk8612, And Mrt67307 On Mouse And Human Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines, Shuhd Waleed Al Noumani

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy largely due to asymptomatic early progression of OC cells, late-stage diagnosis of the tumor, and the resistance of tumor cells to standard treatments. The most prevalent OC subtype, high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), is the primary cause of most OC-related deaths.

Investigating Domain Mismatch In Machine Learning Models Between Simulated And Live Flight, Ahmad Waseem Ghauri

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

My research investigates whether machine learning models trained on synthetic data can learn to detect real life scenarios.

Solar Feasibility On Clippinger Laboratory, Parker Postle

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Investigating the potential energy output and costs involved in a solar array on top of the Clippinger lab and nearby grounds shed.

Lean Meets Digital Manufacturing For Improving Efficiency In Modern Production, Md. Abul Hasan

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This research explores how lean implementation can enhance additive manufacturing efficiency by analyzing 3D printed models before and after optimization and integrating industry expert perspectives.

Osu Central Sterile Supply: Improving Backstock Instrument Search Efficiency, Ethan Flora

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Optimize the backup instrumentation retrieval system and reduce searching time.

Unitas, Isaiah Greene, Luke Graban, Michael Bernay, Juan Alonso

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

A mobile app that allows users to post and find real world events and join them on the app to get details and indicate participation in real life.

Graphene From Coal Derived Graphite: Electrochemical Exfoliation For Electrochemical Energy Storage, Fereshteh Salimi Nanadegani

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Developed graphene from coal-derived graphite via electrochemical exfoliation for use in electrochemical energy storage applications.

Impurity Stability Diagrams For Predicting Dominant Species In Co2 Transport Systems, Moses K. Henaku

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Speciation in Carbon Capture and Storage

Experimental Constraints On The Level Density Of Ti-46 From The 45sc(D,N)46ti Reaction Using The Particle Evaporation Technique, Unish C. Gautam

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This project aims to constrain the nuclear level density, a important quantity in statistical nuclear physics, of Ti-46 via the particle evaporation technique and reduce the uncertainty associated with the production rate of Ti-46 in astrophysical environments.

Effect Of Microstructure And Composition On Anodic Behavior Of Low-Alloy Steels In Aqueous Co₂, Joyce Sousa De Paula

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Perform an exploratory experiment to understand the effects of alloying elements (Cr and Mo) and microstructure on corrosion rate and anodic dissolution of low-alloy steels in aqueous CO2. Compare potentiodynamic sweep results with a developed electrochemical model.

Deep Reinforcement Learning (Drl) Behind The Wheel (Autonomus Driving), Elijah Beard, Tin Vuong, Ming Le, Viet Huy Vu

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Developing an autonomous driving agent capable of navigating a toy car around a track using reinforcement learning.

Pick-And-Place Simulation Using A Ur3 Robot In Simumatik And Ursim., Lydia Slippe

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Development and validation of a fully reproducible digital twin–based pick-and-place learning module using the UR3 in URSim and Simumatik to enable high-fidelity sim-to-real robotics education.

Digital Audio Amplifier With Integrated Dsp, Alec Sebrell, Andrew Clabaugh, Cooper Smith

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This project is a Class D amplifier that uses digital audio inputs for direct digital signal processing.

A Systematic Review Of Prejudice Against Immigrant Women In Organizational Leadership In The United States, Vanessa Ampofoa Boadu

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This study examines how gender, nationality/immigration status, and ethnicity shape workplace experiences, impact professional advancement, and overall productivity

Generative Ai And The Transformation Of Instructional Design Practice, Nour El Houda Maache

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is becoming increasingly common in higher education, yet little has been studied on how it is changing the everyday work of instructional designers (IDs). This qualitative study explores how IDs experience changes in professional practice following the integration of GenAI. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen IDs working in U.S.

Effects Of Electrolyte Composition On Co-Ni Electrowinning From Li-Ion Battery Black Mass Leachates, Javier Serrano

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Investigation of promising electrolyte combinations for selective Co-Ni electrowinning in battery black mass recycling.