Engineering students reached an early peak for their design project  at the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge!

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Rice University engineering students reached an early peak in the creation of their senior capstone design project when they won a batch of awards at the annual Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge this week.

	Rice bioengineering student Rob Bauer sits at a console at historic Mission Control during a backstage tour of NASA's Johnson Space Center this week. Bauer is part of Team Helios, which is designing a microgravity eyewash system that won awards in the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge.

Team Helios and its design for an emergency eyewash for microgravity environments won $550 for prizes in five categories. The ongoing project won "Best Concept Down Selection," "Best Team Patch Design," "Best Team Management" and "Forum Favorite"; the team placed second for presentation.

Team members are bioengineering majors Rob Bauer, Malcolm Blake, Eric Lee and Thierry Rignol and mechanical engineering major Zachary Foster. They were the only Rice representatives among eight teams. The other teams were from Texas A&M, Texas A&M at Kingsville, the University of Texas and the University of Texas, El Paso.

"We got to talk to some very informative NASA engineers, who thought our design selection was appropriate and a vast improvement over the current design," said team leader Bauer. The teams also enjoyed a backstage NASA tour.

Team Helios advisers are Matthew Wettergreen, lecturer in bioengineering; Brent Houchens, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science; Maria Oden, professor in the practice of engineering education and director of theOshman Engineering Design Kitchen; and Bara Reyna of the Space Medicine Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center.