{"id":188462,"date":"2023-12-11T10:36:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=188462"},"modified":"2023-12-11T10:37:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T20:37:10","slug":"fdm-students-pitch-ideas-to-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/12\/11\/fdm-students-pitch-ideas-to-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> team pitch idea for firefighter gear improvements in NASA<\/abbr> competition"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"student
The team is the first Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> group to participate in NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s contest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa research team presented their ideas to improve fire-resistant gear currently on the market for firefighters to NASA<\/abbr> experts who study fire shelters that are deployed during forest fire emergency situations.<\/p>\n

Led by Shu-Hwa Lin from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a>\u2019 (CTAHR<\/abbr>) Department of Family and Consumer Sciences<\/a>, Fashion Design and Merchandising<\/a> program, the team presented their innovations during NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Minority University Research and Education Project Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition<\/a> (MITTIC<\/abbr>) held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, from November 29 to December 1.<\/p>\n

\"student
From left to right: Chester Leoso, Johnell Ladera, Stone Duran (Washington State University student), Matthew Kirimitsu, Alexander Castillo and Johnathan Hollis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team, called Inferno Tech, consists of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa students: team leader Chester Leoso, Matthew Kirimitsu, Johnathan Hollis, Alexander Castillo, Johnell Ladera, Jason Merlander, Louis Jeffers-Fabro and Rio Chappot. They are the first Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> group to participate in the federal space agency\u2019s contest, and competed against nine other university teams across the country.<\/p>\n

MITTIC<\/abbr> is similar to Shark Tank, where, in front of Space Tank Judges (business coaches), students were given the #SpaceToPitch their innovative ideas for new technologies that can benefit their campus, community and the world. MITTIC<\/abbr> offers monetary awards for selected teams, with the winning team receiving $20,000 and the second team receiving $10,000. Additionally, students receive better opportunities for MITTIC<\/abbr> internships.<\/p>\n

Although the team did not receive the winning prizes, they received inspiration and motivation to make changes in their community.<\/p>\n

“It was inspiring to see so many people at NASA<\/abbr> working hard to make changes in the world. Each change may be small, but make a significant difference for all of mankind,” said Kirimitsu, the team\u2019s manager of public affairs. “That is why NASA<\/abbr> needs university students to start making these changes to impact their generation. We want to eventually start working with other accelerators and competitions here in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to start a movement of entrepreneurship here at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.”<\/p>\n

The opportunity to make a change<\/h2>\n

Firefighting is associated with various cancers, as they work in and around dangerous environments and carcinogens. In addition, fire suits typically contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS<\/abbr>, or forever chemicals, which are toxic to humans.<\/p>\n

“We are researching sustainable materials that can be manufactured to create chemical-free turnout gear for firefighters,” said Kirimitsu. “We hope to take our research to the next level by collaborating with NASA<\/abbr> to get feedback, and be an inspiration to other UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa students who want to start their careers with NASA<\/abbr>.”<\/p>\n

After interviewing local firefighters, the team concluded that fire personal protective equipment desperately needs to change, and they felt obligated to create a solution that could maintain firefighters\u2019 long-term health.<\/p>\n

“Firefighters deserve protection that keeps them safe from fires, as well as later illnesses that can result from being a firefighter. It can [also] help protect our community from toxic chemicals that are released in high-danger environments,” Kirimitsu said. “Fires are not going away anytime soon, and we want to keep our firefighters and our ʻohana<\/span> safe. NASA<\/abbr> is allowing us an opportunity to make a change, and I am excited to meet some of these highly intelligent individuals.”<\/p>\n

Read more at the CTAHR<\/abbr> website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa team shared their ideas with experts while participating in NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Shark Tank-inspired competition for innovative technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[212,1420,423,1466,1467,1363,1314,1600,73,9],"class_list":["post-188462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-family-and-consumer-sciences","tag-fashion-design-and-merchandising","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-public-impact-research","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188462"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188476,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188462\/revisions\/188476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}