With support from the NASA MIRO grant and in collaboration with IDEAS² Co-Is Dr. Darren Hartl, Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas, and Dr. Manoranjan Majji, Texas A&M’s SEDS Solar Sail (SSS) group organized a hands-on design competition focused on solar sail deployment systems.
The event engaged 40 higher education students — both undergraduate and graduate who worked in 11 teams over four weeks to engineer creative deployment solutions. Faculty members and SSS students helped plan, run, and judge the competition. Winning teams received monetary prizes and funding to prototype their designs, fostering innovation, teamwork, and experiential learning aligned with NASA mission goals.