Members of the Apollo 27 group return to Z101 to narrate their experience of winning a NASA contest

Santo Domingo.- Two members of the Apollo 27 group, from Intec University, shared their satisfaction on Z101 this Friday after receiving two awards in the NASA Human Exploration RC 2023 Stem Engagement Award. Professor Ezequiel Díaz and student Eduardo Ortega explained that this year’s challenge involved the reaction of an all-terrain vehicle called Rover. The group of 17 individuals worked on the project for eight months before heading to NASA for the final tests, where they ranked among the top evaluations.

Díaz expressed that winning the awards, one of which was the second time for the Dominican Republic, shows that young people in the country have plenty of talent and only need opportunities to showcase it. He also expressed his pride as a Dominican in surpassing La India and the University of Alabama, who ranked second and third in the competition.

The Human Exploration Rover Challenge is an annual NASA engineering design competition for rovers involving high school and college students from around the world in preparation for space exploration with the Artemis mission. The mission aims to send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon before 2025 to establish a sustained human presence.

In addition to this year’s awards, the Apollo 27 group has also previously won the System Safety Award (2020) and the STEM Engagement Award (2022), bringing their total honors to four for their outstanding teamwork.