The STEMarts Youth Bootcamp Series returned for its third year in collaboration with UNM-Taos HIVE. Geared towards youth aged 14 to 25, this free signature bootcamp series explores the science, art, and technology of SPACE.  We kicked off the morning with an exploration of space, spanning from the subatomic level to the international realm of space policy. The journey began with Dr. Steven Goldfarb, a particle physicist beaming in from CERN, the esteemed home of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Goldfarb shared his presentation on “How we measure what we cannot see,” offering insights into the history of the universe through the lens of particle physics.

Following this, we virtually welcomed Dr. Namrata Goswami, a professor and space policy expert, who grew up in the Dima Hasau District,  a remote mountain community in northeast India. She took us into the global space policy landscape and shed light on diverse cultural perspectives on space.

We ending the morning speaker series with Randy Trask, Director of Q Station, a space tech incubator in Albuquerque to talk about the Space Valley Coalition and space career pathways in New Mexico. This science and space topic then inspired students to come up with their own creations for the Space for Earth Design Challenge.

In the afternoon we had UNM alumni and artist, Ian Harrison with UNM student/artist, Julia Bock, lead a tutorial on creating a 3D model using Blender to imagine an O’Neil habitat space pod. Great students and great instructors/speakers around the topic of space exploration for the benefit of earth made this a fun and productive Bootcamp! Next one at the UNM Taos HIVE is happening on March 9 for those that may have missed this one.