Culture and Society
Health and Wellness
Science and Technology
General
Student Life
Education
General
Science and Technology
Student Life
MSU Texas Team Selene proud to be part of NASA Suits again
A group of Midwestern State University students has again been selected to compete in an elite competition hosted by NASA. The Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (NASA SUITS) is a design challenge in which college students nationwide help design user interface solutions for future spaceflight needs.
The MSU Texas Team, Team Selene, received the Pay It Forward Award during the 2025 challenge, yet there was no guarantee they would be chosen again this year. The team believes the experience benefited them in this year’s project proposal, and that the lessons learned last year are helping them navigate this year’s project on a compressed schedule.
Members are embracing the chance to perform even better in 2026 as they are designing an AI assistant for the human operator in this year’s competition.
“We are definitely further ahead than last year, which was a learning experience in all aspects,” said Adrian Robledo, who is the team lead. “We’re not going into it blind, and we know what to expect. Last year’s co-lead (Mierhamza Sly Rahimi) helped me a lot in learning how to manage a team and deal with conflict resolution.”
“This year we’re learning about unity,” said Victoria Heredia, the GUI (Graphic User Interface) team lead.
Team Selene is among an impressive field of collegiate teams that include Boise State University, Brown, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design, Rice University, the University of Michigan, Purdue University, and Northeastern University. MSU Texas, Columbia,
Purdue, Rice, and Michigan are returning from 2025.
The students have been working on the project throughout the semester and will travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for testing just after graduation in May.
“One of the things they did really well is that we sat down together as a group (after last year’s competition), and they asked themselves what we need to improve on,” said Tina Johnson, professor of Computer Science and the team’s faculty adviser. “They work well independently; they address problems that come up; it’s just a fantastic group of students to work with,” she added.
Team Selene is thankful to MSU Texas Stem Director Taylor Majewski for her help in obtaining the necessary funding for the team. “Taylor has been our saving grace this semester,” Robledo said. Majewski also participated with Team Selene on a fun visit to Kate Burgess Elementary in Wichita Falls.
“We plan to continue to take our projects to schools so kids can be inspired,” said Sana Syed Mahmood Hussain, who is the outreach team lead for Team Selene. “Kids have a fixation on space, dinosaurs, or trains. We want to encourage them to keep that interest in space and tell them, ‘Keep that dream alive.’”
Team Selene will also recruit local individuals to test their design. Zachary Lewis, the testing lead, said they are currently conducting outreach on campus to find testers. “It’s to see if it’s actually working from a third-person perspective,” Lewis said. Last year, the age range of testers was from 18 to 76.
In the past month, Team Selene has performed mock presentations and received good feedback. “We are developing a lot faster, and our mock presentation was incredibly helpful because we got to go over the project holistically,” Robledo said.
Team Selene members are Harley Coxon, Emmanuel Gonzalez, Heredia, Mahmood Hussain, Gray Holman, Chinelo-Chudi-Igwe, Zayne Jacelon, Jaxon King, Lewis, Ryan Mathews, Carlos Polanco, Robledo, Sharadha K.C., Conner Taylor, and Giorgio Toffoli.
Related Posts
Health and Wellness
Sports
Student Life
General
Emma Kasza-James wins Gravel Nationals
Student Life
General
Health and Wellness
Prioritizing student health
General
Health and Wellness
Student Life