High School Summer Intern, Matthew Ponnaiya, wins Awards for Far-UVC Research
Matthew Ponnaiya, one of our High School Summer Interns at RARAF, has won recognition for his research work in Far-UVC this summer: Silver from the New York Invention Convention and Gold from the International Genius Olympiad.
The New York Invention Convention is a student innovation program that gives young inventors the opportunity to develop creative solutions to real-world problems. Students design and present their original inventions while gaining experience in problem-solving, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
The International Genius Olympiad is an international high school competition that showcases student projects focused on environmental issues and sustainability. It brings together talented students from around the world to present innovative ideas and compete in categories such as science, writing, business, art, and music.
Under the guidance of Drs. Manuela Buonanno and David Welch, Matthew researched, designed, built, and tested a DADD (Dry Aerosol Deposition Device) impactor for uniformly coating Aluminum coupons (small sample test squares) with increasing amounts of bacteria in aerosolized samples. He then used Far-UVC to test sterilize the coupons looking at effectiveness of Far-UVC to help NASA disinfect spacecraft before launch.
Congratulations Matthew! We are proud of you and the work you have done!
This project is supported by award number 80NSSC25K7399 through the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) program.