It’s not every day that a high school senior can tell their classmates that their research during the Spring and Summer ended up being published on the NASA Technical Reports server.
For Hudson Senior High School’s Zach Zibella, the opportunity of a lifetime came in the form of creating numerous options to reduce plastic counts on the California coasts with five additional high school students and two mentors representing NASA at the Ames Research Center in California.
Zibella’s group’s project, titled “Cleaning up the Coasts – A System for the Removal of Marine Microplastics Using Semi-Autonomous Vehicles”, consisted of several meetings over Microsoft Teams with his team and countless hours of research on his own. NASA management was presented the research paper and a formal presentation on their findings, leading to the decision to publish the research on the Technical Reports Server.
Zibella, a National Honor Society Member, Eagle Scout completed rank, student-athlete and All-County Wind Ensemble member, has dreams of going to college to pursue Aeronautical Engineering and exploring the aviation industry. As of this summer, Zibella had logged 30 hours of flying time and 17 hours of work time on airplanes.
Zibella’s research for NASA can be found by clicking here and downloading the PDF report.
