UCF First-Generation Student Is Discovering Her Place in Space

Born from the problem of the Space Race, UCF was created to rework creativeness into innovation and put together folks to launch humanity past its limits. Today, we’re nonetheless are a spot the place our folks’s curiosity drives discovery, daring questions form the longer term and exploration advances life on Earth.

Founded to succeed in the moon, we’re already on our strategy to the subsequent frontier. Built for liftoff, America’s Space University celebrates UCF Space Week Nov. 3 -7.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Boldly Forge the Future of Space

Kaaliyah McGaughy nonetheless remembers the thrill that stuffed the room as she appeared in awe at historic spacecrafts adorning the ceiling of an exhibit within the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Most of her fifth-grade classmates noticed a cool museum. McGaughy noticed her future.

Ten years, one inspiring highschool physics class and numerous hours spent researching the trail of an aerospace engineer later, McGaughy is contributing to house exploration as a third-year physics pupil at America’s Space University, simply 35 miles west of the place her goals first took flight.

Today, because the college celebrates UCF Space Week and First-Generation Student Awareness Week, her story serves as a robust instance of the dedication and daring spirit of Knights to boldly forge the best way ahead.

Here are some things to know concerning the aspiring physicist:

She Chose UCF Because of Its Strength in Engineering and Technology

SpaceU’s famend engineering packages sealed the deal for McGaughy, who set her sights on learning aerospace engineering when she got here to UCF in 2021. For three years, she poured herself into the key — designing, testing and tinkering her method by way of lessons that introduced her nearer to the world of aerospace that first sparked her creativeness as a child.

“When I came to UCF during a campus visit in high school and I saw the engineering department — all of the works and creations they had in there — that really sold me,” McGaughy says. “I thought, ‘They’re doing amazing work here. They’re doing everything to make sure that space research, or any research and engineering, is continuously being done.’ I loved that.”

Her Journey of Discovery Isn’t Limited to the Stars

“I do a lot of what I do for my family. They sacrificed a lot to get me here today, and without them, I wouldn’t be here at all.”

As a proud first-generation faculty pupil, McGaughy is breaking floor nearer to house, too — carving her personal path by way of greater schooling and changing into a job mannequin for her youthful sister and household.

“I want to continuously make them happy and proud of me,” says McGaughy, who has obtained a first-generation scholarship to help her research.

Ask her what she defines a first-generation pupil as, and she or he doesn’t hesitate: trailblazer. And she’s within the good firm of 1000’s of them. At UCF, McGaughy’s surrounded by a vibrant neighborhood of bold leaders, daring thinkers and sensible pioneers at a college that dares to invent the longer term.

She Helped Build the UCF Exolith Lab’s Regolith Bin

In Summer 2022, throughout her sophomore yr, McGaughy landed a 12-week internship at UCF’s Exolith Lab — a premier facility for house {hardware} testing with simulated moon, Martian and asteroid filth, often known as regolith, utilized in spaceflight analysis and improvement.

“We built a lot of things by hand. It was a very student-friendly environment, and a really good foundation for space-related studies.”

One of these hand-built tasks was the world’s largest simulated lunar floor, housed inside the lab’s Lunar Highland Regolith Test Bin (the regolith bin). Impressive in measurement — measuring 33 ft by 33 ft and stuffed with 240,000 kilos of simulant soil — it’s even larger in potential, offering scientists at NASA and different house firms a sensible testbed for experiments and applied sciences like lunar rovers.

McGaughy’s fingerprints are actually a part of the bin’s basis. She contributed to the sketches and helped construct the bottom by hand as considered one of solely a handful of scholars concerned in bringing the spectacular mission to life. The expertise and her research led her to a part-time senior lab engineer function, which supplied her a chance to design and construct an automatic raise system for robots to enter the regolith bin for qualifying spherical of 2025 NASA Lunabotics Challenge.

She Recently Took a Leap and Changed Her Major to Align with Her Research Goals

As McGaughy grew as an engineering pupil, she discovered herself drawn to a different path. Space wasn’t only a thriller to be admired — it was a spot she wished to know.

“I wanted to do more of the research, learn about space and do more experimental things with that instead of more hands-on things with engineering.”

With help from college members like Pegasus Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences Daniel Britt, who based the Exolith Lab, she switched her main from aerospace engineering to physics on the astronomy observe.

Looking again, the longer term physicist is aware of the change was the precise name as she is now a analysis intern on the Exolith Lab.

“I’m glad I made the decision,” McGaughy says. “I still have engineering under my belt. I love it. I still do it in a heartbeat. But physics was just another avenue I [wanted] to explore.”

She Is Proud to Be Part of the SpaceU Community

If McGaughy’s journey reveals something, it’s that curiosity and dedication can take you far — and at UCF, that very same drive is all over the place.

UCF Space Week, Nov. 3-7, places that vitality on full show, celebrating all of the methods Knight Nation boldly pushes house ahead — from advancing house analysis to supporting Florida’s increasing house economic system to getting ready the subsequent technology of expertise.

“To have something so significant dedicated to what you’re extremely interested in and passionate about — having that represented feels amazing,” she says. “It makes you feel connected. It makes you feel like you have a community.”