NASA Grant to Provide New Learning Opportunities

The $166k grant will fund the installation of weather sensors on the roof of the Johnson Center.

State-of-the-art weather sensors have been installed on the roof of the Johnson Center as part of a $166,000 grant awarded to North Park by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA awarded the five-year grant to NPU in part because of its federal status as a Hispanic Serving Institution, a school that is committed to equitable outcomes for Hispanic students.

The grant was secured through the joint efforts of Assistant Professor of Chemistry John Randazzo and Director of Sponsored

Projects Renee Cox. Only about 10 institutions across the country received the grant, and North Park is the lone Chicago site.

NPU students and professors will have access to the collected data, which will be transmitted directly into North Park’s classrooms and applied to real-time lessons.

Randazzo said the NASA grant was likely to raise North Park’s profile as a research university.

“Building a face-to-face relationship with NASA raises our credibility and increases future prospects,” Randazzo said.