Anonymous
By Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club
The Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club has announced that Levi C. Maaia, a member of its board of directors and a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, has been named to the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) U.S. Education Committee.
The ARISS program provides learning opportunities by connecting students to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) through a partnership between NASA, the American Radio Relay League, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation and other Amateur Radio organizations and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe. The program’s goal is to inspire students in the US and worldwide, to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through Amateur Radio.
Maaia is a telecommunications executive and a former K-12 educator. He earned his first Amateur Radio license in 2006 and presently holds an FCC General Class license K6LCM. Maaia’s research at UC Santa Barbara has focused on STEM education in high school settings. He and his students at Anacapa School in Santa Barbara, contacted Astronaut Chris Cassidy during his stay aboard the ISS in 2013 via a scheduled ARISS radio contact (see video).
“I am thrilled to join ARISS’s inspiring team of engineers, educators and innovators which has supported more than 1,100 contacts directly between students and astronauts,” said Maaia. “ARISS provides incredible and inspirational experiences and is an important part of the space program’s educational outreach.”
The ARISS-US Education Committee provides guidance on the educational aspects of the program. A few more educators will be named to the committee; those interested may write to k1sto@arrl.org. Schools and other educational organizations may apply to host a scheduled contact with the ISS by visiting www.ariss.org.
SBARC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation organized to promote education for persons interested in radio telecommunications, to disseminate information about scientific discoveries and progress in the field, and to train communicators for public service and emergency communications. SBARC operates a wide-area network of analog and digital communications systems across Santa Barbara County and encourages and sponsors experiments in electronics while promoting the highest standards of practice and ethics in the conduct of communications.
