YOUNG EYES ON DISCOVERY Senior MaryAlice Young develops aerospace technology for science fair Rachel Lechwar • Copy Editor
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any students claim to set their goals high, but how many can say they are shooting past Earth’s atmosphere? Senior MaryAlice Young certainly can. Since eighth grade, she has been developing a technology to ease the burden of space travel and is working on a patent for her work. “Ever since I was really young, I wanted to be an astronaut,” Young said. “I wanted to go into space, but that’s changed over the years.” She developed an interest in aerospace engineering with a focus on developing spacecraft. Through the science fair, she discovered this passion. An avid sci-fi fan, MaryAlice was inspired by “Star Trek” for her science project in eighth grade, replicating the electromagnet technology to adjust to the lessened gravity in space. “In reality, if we want to go farther in space, there has to be some way to simulate gravity,” Young said. “So, this has not been done before.” The distance from major forces of gravity, like Earth, has detrimental effects on
astronauts’ bodies, including bone and muscle loss. They have to engage in exercises in space to maintain strength, according to NASA.gov. Young centered her research around developing a solution using electromagnets and has spent each consecutive year building on her findings and increasing the complexity of her technology. In ninth grade, she developed a circular corridor and manually moved electromagnets to model the up and down movement of walking. In tenth grade, she designed a computer program to change the currents on its own. She further increased the involvement of the program in eleventh grade by setting up an entire walking system instead of only one electromagnet, building an apparatus to simulate the movement. “The most rewarding thing for me is just being exposed to a whole new realm of science and understanding,” Young said. There have been tangible rewards for MaryAlice Young as well. Last year, she made it to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
and earned first place for an aerospace award and fourth in her category. Each year, she has made it to the regional level to take first or second place. “Two years ago when they said I was going to international, I cried because that was my main goal for a while,” Young said. “I didn’t care if I got anything at the fair, I just wanted to go.” This year, she and her sister, sophomore Izabelle Young joined forces to progress in the development of her goal: a suit. They attempt this on a smaller scale, using a glove with an electromagnet inhibitor material and various sensors. MaryAlice and Isabelle Young earned first place and five special awards in the regional competition on Feb. 11. They will be moving on to international science fair once again and aim to earn a top three prize. She has built upon the feedback of judges from past fairs to include experimentation on the potentially harmful effects of electromagnets on the human body. Izabelle Young used planaria, free-living flatworms,
in her science project last year and brings her experience to use them for testing on this project. “The greatest reward has been getting closer to my sister,” Izabelle Young said. “She always used to talk about physics stuff and I didn’t really understand. Now I can just talk to her about it as well, and it’s just really cool.” Science fair has literally paid off for MaryAlice Young, though all of her award money has gone into funding her ongoing research. She aims to continue developing her suit at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) where she will have access to more resources. “If there was ever any doubt, there’s no doubt now,” MaryAlice Young said. “I definitely want to do aerospace engineering. It embodies a bunch of stuff I am already interested in, so science fair helped me in that respect, solidifying what I wanted to do.” BELOW: Senior MaryAlice Young and sophmore Isabelle Young earned first place in the regional science fair and will advance to the international competition. Photos courtesy of MaryAlice Young
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