亚洲AV

Students from Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy teamed up with students from 亚洲AV to launch a high-altitude, data-collecting, location-tracking weather balloon into the atmosphere. The launch took place at 11:47 a.m. on Friday, May 23 at the Fred Biletnikoff Field at Erie High School.  

The balloon launch represented a months-long collaboration to design data-capturing mechanisms, called payloads, that were attached to the balloon to track location and capture videos of the atmosphere. While final data still needs to be collected, the balloon was expected to reach a maximum altitude of 85,000 feet and land near Findley Lake, Ny.  

Sixteen students from a principles of engineering course taught at Erie High School worked with Wookwon Lee, Ph.D., P.E., professor of electrical and cyber engineering at Gannon, to design and create two payloads. Lee co-taught the course alongside Nicholas Panochko from Erie High School.   

"It has been an incredible experience working with the students from Collegiate Academy," said Lee. "This is a longstanding project at Gannon, and bringing this experience to the high school classroom provides students with a chance to develop their interest in engineering through a tangible project."

Lee has organized high-altitude balloon launches with Gannon students since 2009. In addition to the payloads created by Collegiate Academy students, electrical and cyber engineering students at Gannon have worked to create additional payloads and radio receivers to transmit location data of the balloon to the ground.  The students involved with Gannon’s High-Altitude Ballooning Team have launched balloons as recently as April of this year and during last year’s total solar eclipse. This is the first time a launch has been coordinated with local high school students.  

"Our students have greatly enjoyed collaborating with Gannon on this project," Richard Schneider, Ed.D., supervisor of secondary content, with Erie's Public Schools. "It is exciting for them to witness the planning and execution of a project of this scale come to life."