CSUCI student launches balloon project

Kosta Grammatis, a student at California State University at Channel Islands, earned a first place in the engineering and computer science category at the 21st annual California State University Student Research Competition held recently at CSU Dominguez Hills.

Grammatis's "Balloon Project" is designed to identify and understand, through air sampling and data collection, the propagation of the pesticide methyl bromide in the atmosphere. The instrument collects and stores air samples and will provide a research platform for atmospheric research. Grammatis designed and built all of the onboard instruments over a two and a half year period.

Grammatis launched the "Balloon Project" May 12 at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area at the intersection of Via Goleta and Lynn Road in Newbury Park.

The Student Research Competition is a systemwide competition that showcases research conducted by undergraduate and graduate students in academic programs offered by the CSU. Student participants make oral presentations before juries of experts from corporations, foundations, public agencies, colleges and universities in California.

In addition to Grammatis, CSUCI students making presentations at the CSU Student Research Competition were: Christina Fernandez and America Flores in mathematics; Monica Zapeda in English education; and Ken Diffenderfer and Graham Moland in biology.

CSUCI professors who served as advisers for the students and attended the competition were Mary Adler, assistant professor of English; Ching Hua Wang, professor and chair of the biology program; and Ivona Grzegorczyk, professor and chair of the mathematics and applied physics programs. Grzegorczyk also served as the event research coordinator for the CSUCI campus.

For more information about the launch of the "Balloon Project," call Grammatis at (805) 750-0806 or visit iamkosta.org.

For more information about the CSU Student Research Competition, call Grzegorczyk at (805) 437-8868.