COC students to participate in NASA project

Canyons Hall at College of the Canyons (Source: COC)
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Students from College of the Canyons (COC) will have a unique opportunity to participate in the NASA High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) project this year.

According to an agenda item from the Wednesday Santa Clarita Community College District’s Board of Trustees meeting, which oversees COC, this is the second time COC has participated in the program and the fourth time a community college has participate in the program in its 10-year history.

The HASP Program is meant to foster student excitement toward an aerospace career path through a “space test platform” that uses scientific balloons to test student satellites, prototypes or fly other small experiments.

These balloons will last for 6 hours to 25 hours and top altitudes of 100,000 feet.

COC’s team, led by team manager Daniel Tikhomirov, is one of 12 payloads, or colleges, given a spot on HASP balloon, which is supported by the NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO) and the Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE).

The team will work until July to construct the payload before completing flight testing and integration in August and launching the payload from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) base in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in September.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Board of Trustees members are also expected to conduct a first reading of a new board policy about faculty interns.

The board policy would allow COC to hire qualified faculty interns who are professional or graduate students enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program at a college or university.

According to the proposed board policy, graduate students will only be eligible if they have completed 75 percent of their coursework and are working in the discipline they will be legally qualified to teach in upon graduation.

Those involved in the semester-long internship would be under direct supervision of a faculty member.

The Board is also expected to review monthly financial reports for COC ending Jan.31.

According to the agenda item, funding from federal, state and local grants and changes in inter-funds transfers increased specific January budgets by $567,231 for district programs’ use.

Of this increased funding, $27,787 went to the Unrestricted General Fund, $352,524 went to the Restricted General Fund, $50,000 went to the Capital Improvement Projects Fund and $136,920 went to the Enterprise-Employee Training Institute Fund.

Additional Agenda Items:

  • Consider appointment of board member representative/liaison to the COC Foundation Board of Directors
  • Conduct first reading of modified board policies: Withholding Of Records and Catastrophic Leaves
  • Conduct first reading of new board policy: Child Abuse Reporting
  • Ratify contract for painting projects for repair and renovation of facilities to AK Consulting and Construction

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661-287-5575
On Twitter as @_ChristinaCox_

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