SAES and NASA connections structural and emblematic

A 2004 A&T graduate has passed along a progress report to one of his former instructors, Dr. Manuel Reyes, that makes a bachelor’s in bioenvironmental engineering now look like a launching pad, literally as well as metaphorically. Howard Conyers completed work on his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Duke University this summer. The doctorate from Duke — along with a master’s in mechanical engineering from Duke and a bachelor’s in bioenvironmental engineering from A&T  — set Conyers up for a prompt post-graduation employment offer, as a structural dynamicist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Louisiana and Mississippi. In e-mail to Reyes, Conyers — make that Dr. Conyers — writes that he will be working “to help design the rocket engines for the new space shuttle project.” Conyers finished off his prep work for launching a career with NASA with a doctoral dissertation on "The Effect of Wing Damage on Aeroelastic Behavior" at Duke. It was an academic career that began in the fall of 2000, when Conyers enrolled at A&T as one of the USDA’s 1890 Scholars. (USDA 1890 Scholars receive summer employment with a USDA agency as well as full tuition, room and board, and fees for one of the 1890 Institutions.) Before leaving A&T for Duke, Conyers became the first bioenvironmental engineering major to receive the Namaskar Award, which the College of Engineering presents annually to the top undergraduate student in the graduating class in for exemplary academics, campus leadership and community service. Conyer’s exemplary academic achievement was a perfect 4.0 GPA at A&T.

The SAES has another current connection to NASA and the Space Shuttle Endeavour in particular, in addition to Dr. Conyers. When Endeavour left earth on July 15, the cargo included a National 4-H flag, featuring the 4-H clover. Endeavour carried the 4-H Flag along on its most recent mission to increase public awareness of the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology Program, which has an ambitious goal of bringing a million new young people into science, engineering and technology by 2013. There will be another national public awareness campaign involving 4-H and cutting-edge science on Oct. 7: National Youth Science Day. This year’s national science experiment, which will be conducted by millions of young Americans, is a Biofuel Blast that will give young scientists a chance to “see firsthand how this biofuel is produced.”