Jamie Principato wants to ensure that blind students can excel in science and engineering careers. So the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØundergraduate is parlaying her own experience in designing and building space instruments to help them get the training they’ll need.
Blind from birth, Principato developed a project called BLAST, which involves hands-on workshops for visually impaired high school and college students focused on providing a solid background in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Her first workshop involved both electronics and the art of soldering. Now she’s part of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC), a NASA-funded initiative that gives students at Colorado institutions, primarily undergraduates, a chance to design, build and fly space instruments and experiments.
Principato’s first COSGC project was in 2014, when she was the lead scientist on an experiment mounted on a high-altitude balloon to measure space radiation. “I want all students with disabilities like mine
Principal Investigators:
Jamie Principato
Funding:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Collaboration/Support:
Physics; Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC)Ìý
Michele Moses