Hartnell students showcase their research projects

Folks at Hartnell College are very proud of their math and science students, several of whom had a chance to intern this summer at top research institutions around the Monterey Bay area. The students showcased their results at the Fifth Annual Hartnell College Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Student Intern Research Symposium on Aug. 20.

Students spent their summers participating in challenging projects at places such as the Naval
Postgraduate School, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, UC Santa Cruz, and the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy--who provide internships for science, math and engineering students at Hartnell College. With grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation and the
Department of Education, among others, Hartnell students are given the chance to work alongside graduate-level researchers and other professionals, an opportunity rarely offered at the community college level.

For instance, Chris Halcon has worked with the Solar Cell Array Tester program at NPS, charged with developing a platform to test solar cells in space. Through a program coordinated with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the solar cells are launched as a compact satellite known as a CubeSat to gather information from outer space. Halcon's work just earned him up to $50,000 in scholarships, one from NASA and one from the Matsui Foundation.

Who knows, maybe we'll see a Nobel laureate emerge from their ranks...