Aerospace News Section

Almost two months after Jeanette Ball’s surprise resignation as superintendent of the Judson Independent School District, the Southwest Independent School District named her as the lone finalist for its top job Tuesday.

Students in Rachel Robb’s fifth grade class got to do a deep dive into the mechanics of flying and building drones through a virtual presentation through the Rural STEM Initiative from the Dee Howard International Education Foundation.

You wouldn’t think there would have been many firsts in flight left for someone who wasn’t born until 1920 — the year of the first transcontinental air-mail service, the first U.S. Navy flight and the first vapor trail, left by the first turbo-charged aircraft. 

Dee Howard International Education Foundation is pleased to announce that it has established the Georgia Howard Culinary Arts Initiative to support Pre-K -12 Culinary Arts in general and to expose the students to the role that culinary arts plays in both Civil and Military Aviation as well as the human exploration of space. 

In May 2022 DHEDF announced the launch of a National STEM Initiative focused on Rural Schools. In September 2022, we launched the Initiative for the 2022/2023 academic year in twelve schools in nine states, over time our goal is to reach out to rural schools in all fifty states.

Today, at the second convening of the National Space Council, Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing new commitments from the U.S. government, private sector companies, education and training providers, and philanthropic organizations to support space-related STEM initiatives to inspire, prepare, and employ the next generation of the space workforce.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 — The University of Texas at San Antonio has been awarded a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study pedagogical approaches for supporting Hispanic and underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.

SAN ANTONIO – This fall semester the University of Texas at San Antonio is offering a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering that will prepare students for a successful career designing aircraft, spacecraft and more.

AUGUST 19, 2022 — Starting this fall semester, the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design at UTSA (the Klesse College) will offer a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. It is the college’s 13^th master’s program.

Education Commission of the States is pleased to honor Dr. Bernard A. Harris Jr., CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, with the 2022 James Bryant Conant Award, in recognition of his steadfast commitment to expanding opportunity and diversifying the nation's talent pool in the STEM fields. 

May 23, 2022 — Southwest Research Institute announced a 2021 research volume of nearly $726 million, up more than 4% from 2020 and the highest recorded by the Institute. Capital expenditures were up 21%, exceeding $71 million for the first time.

Strengthening San Antonio’s claim as a new hub for automotive manufacturing, Navistar’s long-awaited truck factory will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday, though production at the site has been underway for months.

Part of what makes the UTSA Hypersonics Lab unique is the 50-foot-long, 7,000-pound Mach 7 Ludwieg Tube Wind Tunnel it houses. What makes it especially unique, however, are the students who are running the facility and are gaining invaluable experiential learning opportunities in the process.

The final Learjet 75 rolled out of a Bombardier Wichita hangar Monday afternoon headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for delivery to a customer of Northern Jet Management. Just a few hours earlier, the light jet’s departure followed a 30-minute-long ceremony marking the delivery and the end of 60 years of Learjet production.

March 29, 2022 — Southwest Research Institute invites college students to share visions for the transformation of transportation for a chance to win a $1,000 cash prize and a paid trip to Los Angeles to attend ITS World Congress September 18-22.

March 28, 2022 — Dr. James Burch of Southwest Research Institute has received NASA’s highest honor for nongovernment employees, its Distinguished Public Service Medal. Burch is recognized for his visionary science mission leadership in investigating the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetospheres of Earth and Saturn as well as the environments of comets.

Congratulations to Sophie Garza for receiving the Blue Sky Educational Foundation/Dee Howard Scholarship to attend the 2022 EAA Air Academy Advanced Camp during EAA AirVenture. The Camp runs from July 29, 2022 to August 6, 2022.

H. Puentes is the co-founder and executive director of San Diego Squared, a nonprofit he founded with partner Bill Rastetter that works to increase diversity in STEM careers through mentoring, scholarships and other programming

U.S. Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) this week introduced S. 1752, a bill to establish the National Center for the Advancement of Aviation.

KSAT Community is highlighting local nonprofit, the Dee Howard Foundation as the group seeks to inspire, challenge and empower innovators in the fields of aviation and aerospace while training a skilled workforce for the San Antonio, Texas Region.

NASA has chosen San Antonio's Scobee Education Center as a partner to provide space exploration and STEM education to traditionally undeserved areas, naming it an Informal Education Community Anchor.

DHEDF is pleased to announce the launch of the DHEDF website at www.dhedf.org and its social media pages to implement our mission to develop programming, resources, curriculum, and initiatives to engage primarily underserved Pre-K thru 12 students in STEAM learning based on the use of automotive and/or aeronautical project-based learning pathways.

In partnership with NASA, the WEX Foundation offers New Worlds Await You – a high-quality STEM program offering National STEM Challenges. 

The mission of U.S. Drone Soccer is to make aerospace careers accessible for all students. Drone Soccer is an educational esport that immerses students in aviation skills through classroom lessons and after school leagues for grades 6-12 (ages 12 and up). 

SAN ANTONIO - Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas announced on Monday that they're investing over $200,000 in local STEM education.

The Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design (Klesse College) unveiled a gift from the Dee Howard International Education Foundation and The Dee Howard Foundation.

The Dee Howard International Education Foundation recently gave a framed historic photograph of a Slick Airways aircraft to the Institute Archives. The ceremony occurred on 13 Dec 2021 at Southwest Research Institute. 

Within the past decade, three endowments and a certification program have been established to support engineering students and faculty, including the Wayne and Julie Fagan Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering, created this year.