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CanSat team
Kapiʻolani CanSat team

Kapiʻolani Community College’s CanSat team took home the top prize for designing, building and launching a space-related mission at the annual CanSat International Competition held June 7–9 in Abilene, TX. Known as Team Mod 6, Kapiʻolani CC students prepared for eight months for this final showdown in Texas, out-performing stiff competition from top universities from Iran, Canada, India and the United States.

Members of the 2013 CanSat team are Diamond Tachera, Kelsey Kawaguchi, Rae-zan Raposas, Joshua Tamayo, Logan Tamayo, McClyde Gaborno and Taylor Viti.

A reception honoring the winners will be held on Friday, June 14, 5:30 p.m. at Kapiʻolani Community College STEM Center, Kokiʻo 202.

Chancellor Leon Richards congratulated the team on its monumental win. “Having an intrepid leader at the helm makes the team indomitable,” said Chancellor Richards. “The college applauds the team’s hard work and courage to stand up to stiff competition.”

“Most of the students in the CanSat team are students recruited through our summer bridge program sponsored by one of Kapiʻolani’s grants from the National Science Foundation,” said Hervé Collin, the team’s faculty advisor and Kapiʻolani CC professor. “The summer bridge program’s goal is to increase the number of Native Hawaiian students into the STEM fields.”

The project was supported by the National Science Foundation, Space Grant Hawaiʻi, and in collaboration with Windward Community College, which provided support to the Kapiʻolani team with two test launches.

For more information on the competition, read the Kapiʻolani CC news release or visit the STEM Center website.

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