{"id":398268,"date":"2026-07-14T19:31:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398268\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:31:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:31:29","slug":"santa-ana-college-students-shoot-for-the-stars-in-nasa-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398268\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Ana College Students Shoot For The Stars in NASA Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

When My Le, a 21-year-old electrical engineering Santa Ana College student from Garden Grove, was a kid she dreamed of being an astronaut and being a part of NASA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week Le is one step closer to achieving that dream and heading off to Houston after leading a team of three other Santa Ana College students and a UC San Diego student through to one of the final phases of a NASA competition \u2013 securing one of the 11 finalist spots out of 100 schools.<\/p>\n

\"\"Electrical engineering student My Le (left) speaks at a reception for Team MEKAH at Santa Ana College on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpace is something that\u2019s unreal and I think for someone like me, it\u2019s hard to do it and I would never imagine that I would do something related,\u201d Le said in an interview at a reception to celebrate and send off her team, MEKAH, last week.<\/p>\n

Le said once she realized how much she adored NASA, she set a goal for herself to be a part of the agency in some way by applying to internships before deciding to compete in NASA competitions.<\/p>\n

The competition they entered, NASA Orbit Space<\/a>, is aimed at getting students across the country to design technology for exploring outer space and compete for over $380,000, receive mentorship from experts and be a part of a program to help launch their careers.<\/p>\n

Alicia Ramos, student services coordinator for the engineering department at the college, said the team has persevered through a host of challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHere at Santa Ana College we have a lot of students that have a lot of adversity, and they somehow still find a way to overcome that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of that is because of our community that we have here. I\u2019d like to say that they feel welcome enough to be able to lean on a lot of services here on campus to get them ahead in opportunities that they probably never thought that they would be able to obtain. I\u2019m glad that they took the initiative to be in this competition,\u201d Ramos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tony Mendoza, a 40-year-old Santa Ana College student on the team, said he never thought he would come this far after moving around from Saudi Arabia to Canada to Dubai \u2013 working different jobs before deciding to go to the U.S. to finish his degree and pursue his dream.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tony Mendoza, a mechanical drafting design major, speaks at a reception at Santa Ana College on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not bringing only our school, the community college, my family, but especially pride for my country, the Philippines. I\u2019m very, very proud because before I was an overseas Philippine worker. Now I\u2019m a student at community college, and then I\u2019m going to NASA,\u201d said Mendoza, a mechanical drafting design major, in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Trang, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major on the team from Santa Ana, said participating in this competition has been incredibly surreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every kid wants to become an astronaut once they grow up,\u201d Trang said in an interview. \u201cBeing able to work and to come this far for the NASA competition is surreal. I mean, NASA is at the forefront of our space technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen Schwartz, an advisor to the team and mechanical engineer at Cal Tech, said she was driving when she heard MEKAH was one of the finalists.<\/p>\n

\"\"Helen Schwartz, an advisor, speaks at a reception for Team MEKAH on July 9, 2026 at Santa Ana College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally pulled the car over and stopped, and just l cheered and almost cried and just was so proud of the group. I mean, competing against 100 teams that often have a lot more resources dedicated to this project than Santa Ana College does,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a video of the team when they heard the announcement, and it was just an eruption of noise and cheering. Anything that was said after the word MEKAH was just not heard because everyone was celebrating so loudly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students will be competing against other colleges<\/a> from California like Cal Poly Pomona and UC Irvine, a couple of schools in Texas as well as a university in New Jersey and one in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alicia Ramos, student services coordinator for the engineering department, speaks at a reception for MEKAH on July 9, 2026 at Santa Ana College.<\/p>\n

Ramos said she hopes the competition will serve as a stepping stone for the team for future opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students will experience this opportunity, and it will inspire them to do more. It will inspire them to question more. It\u2019ll inspire them to create more, engineer more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ramos also said she hopes it sets an example for other Santa Ana College students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they see My Le\u2019s face and actually say there is somebody that is representative of me,\u201d she said. \u201cOur students are going to say how did they get there and how can I get there too. I think that because we have students who are so easy to approach, it\u2019s going to definitely make other students feel like they can do it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Launching Point<\/p>\n

NASA Orbit wasn\u2019t the original competition that Le and UC San Diego student Ken Khant had their sights set on when they first tried to get team MEKAH to compete.<\/p>\n

In fact, it is not even the same team.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2025, Le was looking to compete in the NASA Minds Project, a smaller competition where college students design and build technology for the Artemis mission but by September she was told funding for the competition got cut due to a government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The original MEKAH team, except for Le and Khant, disassembled after the news \u2013 but then NASA informed them of the Orbit competition and the duo started to recruit new team members and began to massage and grow their idea.<\/p>\n

Schwartz said they didn\u2019t have to change the design for their submission too much after they switched competitions and it allowed them to refine their invention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually felt that we were maybe ahead of the game because we had spent all those months creating a final design for this submission for NASA Minds, and when that fell through, we were like, \u2018Well, great! Now we still have all this stuff planned and designed. We can really get down to all the nitty-gritty and refine it and make it something very impressive,\u2019\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n

Project Threshold<\/p>\n

For their submission called Project Threshold, the MEKAH team created two robotic devices named Morpheus and Aether.<\/p>\n

\"\"Santa Ana College Michael Trang showcases Project Threshold at a reception on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

The Aether robot is designed to be in a spacecraft\u2019s airlock to evaluate the air quality when an astronaut returns from a spacewalk or planetary surface to make sure it is safe and there are no particles that can cause respiratory issues.<\/p>\n

The Morpheus robot is designed to monitor the health of astronauts on the spaceship by checking vitals and performing cognitive tests.<\/p>\n

Le said she came up with the idea for Project Threshold because she used to be a pre-med student and cares about human health.<\/p>\n

\u201cAstronauts are our heroes so we need to do something to protect them,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause if humans are not feeling healthy, they cannot do anything. They cannot explore anything basically so I was thinking, like, what if we create some system that can protect our astronauts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwartz says the team has a real shot of winning with Project Threshold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe design is super unique and innovative, and human health is such an important thing that I think the judges in Houston will recognize that, and they have recognized it so far,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could very well be a real concept in the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Does it Take to be a Finalist<\/p>\n

Le said the team put in a lot of hard work to become one of the finalists balancing school and midterms while trying to meet deadlines for the competition and hearing they were moving on to the next phase was unreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did try our best. We put a lot of effort into this project,\u201d she said. \u201cOur hard work paid off. It\u2019s not luck; it\u2019s our hard work. We deserved to get that award.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Team MEKAH at a reception at Santa Ana College on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

To stay motivated and inspired, Le said she frequently watched the movie Hidden Figures \u2013 a film about Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated the trajectories for early U.S. spaceflights.<\/p>\n

Now, Le and her crew will be competing at and touring a NASA facility in Texas named after Johnson.<\/p>\n

Arthur Alcocer, a 25-year-old biomedical engineering major on the team, said his teammates\u2019 motivation, his skills from previous internships and the support from the faculty allowed him to contribute to creating a truly unique invention for the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past year, I spent all my breaks \u2013 winter breaks, spring breaks \u2013 all my free time to work on this project. A lot of it was because I\u2019m really passionate about my work. Being able to work and create a system that can help support astronauts as a community college student, I was overjoyed and as we slowly developed our project. I was like, this is totally doable,\u201d said Alcocer, co-lead for creating the Morpheus robot.<\/p>\n

\"\"Santa Ana College student Arthur Alcocer speaks at a reception for Team MEKAH on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

Mendoza, the team\u2019s designer specialist, said there were a lot of revisions to the designs of project threshold and that he would stay up late finishing his design drawings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of time and sacrifice to do it. So we work on this for a couple of months, not days, not weeks, but months so being here and then flying to NASA to Houston, that\u2019s a lot. That\u2019s a very rewarding experience with My Le and then our team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mendoza said now that they\u2019re finalists, the focus is on delivering a stellar presentation about Project Threshold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the outcome, we\u2019ll be happy,\u201d he said \u201cIf we get more rewards or first prize, second prize for us, that\u2019s a bonus. But being there representing Santa Ana College and the STEM students. For us, that\u2019s a real achievement, and that\u2019s a celebration for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcocer said he used to joke with his teammates that if MEKAH wins the competition they should pop champagne bottles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time I think we have a good shot at winning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll make sure to bring the champagne to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.<\/p>\n

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