The DETECTS Initiative invited high school teams from all over the U.S. to submit their proposed research designs. Sponsors, The University of Alabama at Huntsville, and SPARC Laboratory then evaluated the proposed projects for their effectiveness in meeting all challenge criteria.
The DETECTS challenge presented to students a year ago involves:
- Two-semester, hands-on, space payload programming and testing challenge
- Students designed a small Raspberry Pi experiment to be performed in Low-Earth orbit
- Students will learn:
- Basic Python programming
- Basic circuit design
- Experiment design and testing
- Communication skills
- Teamwork
Da Vinci’s Space Bound Winning Team and Project
![Logo of the Toscani team, depicting a thermometer in front of a sun icon (representing summer), falling leaf (representing fall), snowflake (representing winter), and flower (representing spring)](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200909toscani.png)
- Project Manager: Xavier Litman
- Chief Engineer: Sebastian Banuelos
- Design/Programming Lead: Seth Rodriguez
- Design/Programming Member: Jessica Marquez
- Test Engineer: Kimberly Cardona
- ACE Lead: Alexandra Rodriguez
- ACE Member: Jasmine Looney
![The Toscani team's circuit board, showing a Raspberry Pi with a custom circuit board mounted to it. The custom circuit board has an accelerometer (a large rectangle on the left) and a thermometer (a slightly smaller rectangle just to the right of the accelerometer) visibly protruding.](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200909toscaniboard.jpg)
- Measure temperatures in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and identify any relationship between the on-Earth seasons and the temperature in LEO
- Attempt to identify regions with the most greenhouse gas emissions
- Measure the constant vibrations on the International Space Station (ISS) and any major changes in these vibrations to eventually identify how often the ISS gets re-boosted into orbit.
- Potentially calculate the kinetic energy of their Raspberry Pi
Da Vinci Team Named to the Top 4 National Finalists
![Logo of the GammaGang team, depicting a stylized box and the text "GammaGang" in various shades of green](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200909gamma.png)
- Project Manager: Jonathan Herrera
- Chief Engineer: Reagan Rubio
- Design/Programming: Jonathan Gutierrez, Angel De Los Santos
- Testing: Francisco Villagrana, Isaac Gomez, Ivan Iniquez
- Marketing: Juan Santos, Alex Castro
![The GammaGang's modified camera. The lens has been removed and replaced with an aluminum cover.](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200909gammacamera.png)
The District is very proud of our Da Vinci Robotics Teams! Our appreciation goes to all those involved for the many long hours spent on these top-quality projects. These students serve as excellent representatives and ambassadors of what it means to be a student at Da Vinci School for Science and the Arts.