NASA, SME's HUNCH Program Helps High School Students Manufacture & Create Hardware For The ISS

HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) is an educationally focused program that aims for high school student’s pave their way into having careers in the aerospace industry. NASA then provides the students what they need to accomplish and present their projects

According to Phys.org, NASA’s HUNCH program was started by Stacy Hale. The education program later on partnered with SME Education Foundation and initiated the Foundation’s Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education (PRIME). The student’s projects that will result through PRIME and HUNCH was then stated to be presented in the HUNCH Ceremony. In which, those projects that would be chosen would be used by the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama then mentioned that HUNCH has two primary goals. The first he stated that they need actual space station models to train ground support personnel. Aside from helping NASA, the other reason was to aid high school students in planning and making their future. With that said, NASA not just only provides HUNCH student’s materials, equipment, and training but keeps the students safe as well.

Furthermore, NASA’s HUNCH program was mentioned to have the process of letting students meet with manufacturers and work with them. The students were mentioned to also experience sustainable hands-on training program through the help of their mentors. Hence, their experience in the program provides them future benefits like job opportunities, apprenticeship experiences and internships per Industry Week.

“By combining our PRIME network with NASA’s HUNCH program and working together to further expand the number of schools in the combined network, we can provide more students with access to a STEM and manufacturing focused education using hands-on learning experiences,” stated Brian Glowiak, vice president of the SME Education Foundation.

As of now, NASA’s collaboration with PRIME was reported to already have a successful number of 117 student classrooms in 26 states participating in reaching their goal. HUNCH was also mentioned to had their student made Single Stowage Locker already launched through the SpaceX-10 and is now being used by the ISS.