Three third year students at the Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications of Poznan University of Technology – Maciej Czyzewski, Daniel Nowak and Kamil Piechowiak (under supervision of prof. Jacek Blazewicz) were invited to Kennedy Space Center in the USA, where they will take part in NASA Mars 2020 mission launch (mid-July 2020).
The main goal of this mission is the further exploration of Mars surface and search for any traces of micro-organic life using Preservence – an unmanned rover. It will be carried into space by Atlas V-541 rocket (height: 58m, mass: 531t).
The invitation to participate is the award for winning this year’s NASA Space Apps Challenge in category: “Best Use of Science”. Our students created an app called “The Great Bloom Theory” during the 48 hour hackathon. This app, using data shared by NASA, can predict a month in advance where next Cyanobacteria blooms on Earth will appear. Solutions like this are utilised to prevent algal blooms, which can be harmful and create dead zones (areas with lower dissolved oxygen concentration or completely depleted of it) in the sea, where most of aquatic life can’t survive. During the launch, students will have the opportunity to compare their solution with the currently used one.
To know more, check the project and the competition websites.
It’s worth mentioning that this success was widely covered by polish media (all sources are in Polish):
Congratulations for the students! We wish you further success!