Rice team tops in NASA competition

Zero-G eyewash wins grand prize in Texas Space Grant Consortium event

A team of Rice University senior engineering students won Top Design Team, along with several other awards, at this year’s Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) competition with a proposal for an emergency eyewash system for astronauts.

From left, Team Helios members Zachary Foster, Rob Bauer, Thierry Rignol, Malcolm Blake and Eric Lee.

In addition to the grand prize, Team Helios was honored for Best Test Procedure and Documentation, Best Poster and Model Presentation and Best Oral Presentation. The team tied for first for Forum Favorite and took home a total of $1,850 in prize money.

Helios was one of 11 teams competing in the annual NASA-sponsored event, which included competitors from Texas A&M, Texas Tech and the University of Texas.

Team members are Rob Bauer, Malcolm Blake, Eric Lee and Thierry Rignol, all bioengineering majors, and Zachary Foster, a mechanical engineering major. Their advisers are Matthew Wettergreen, a lecturer in bioengineering, and Brent Houchens, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science.

The eyewash goggles designed by Team Helios are designed to work in zero gravity.

The goal of the senior capstone design project was to create a set of goggles that would allow spacefarers to both wash their eyes in an emergency while containing and eliminating excess fluids. The team’s solution involved borrowing suction from a space toilet to help contain the rinse water.

“The comments from the judges were that this was very high-quality work, and everyone was very impressed,” Wettergreen said. “The device is successful based on the original constraints set by NASA, and with a few cosmetic modifications and superficial fixes, it could perform like a professional eyewash station.

“The device will only work in zero gravity,” he said. “So the exciting opportunity the students had was to solve a problem that won’t even be used in the environmental conditions they inhabit.”

Last year, two Rice teams — the Electric Owls and CardiOwls — shared the grand prize.