Norah Patten

Norah Patten is an Irish aeronautical engineer and an award winning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) advocate[1] from Ballina, County Mayo.

Early life and education

Patten was born in Ballina, County Mayo she went to secondary school in St. Marys Convent, and was fascinated by space as a child after visiting NASA when she was 11 years old.[2] She never let go of that interest and passion for space; designing rockets for her junior certificate art project, visiting NASA on numerous occasions as a teenager, and strategically selecting to study Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Limerick.[3] Patten completed a work placement at Boeing during her undergraduate degree program and continued her education at the University of Limerick, where she obtained her doctorate in Aerodynamics in 2011. She completed a work placement in Bell Labs during this time.

Patten participated European Space Agency supported Alpbach Summer School in 2008 and graduated from the International Space University Space Studies Program in 2010.

Career

Patten worked as a lecturer and project manager at University of Limerick before joining the Irish Composites Centre as the Communications and Outreach Manager in 2012. Patten initiated and managed “The Only Way is Up[4]” project, which sent Ireland’s first student experiment to the International Space Station in 2014, through a commercial agreement with NanoRacks.[5]

She was awarded an International Astronautical Federation Emerging Space Leaders Grant and was a panellist on the Next Generation Plenary in 2015 .[6] Patten has been selected as department and team project Chair at the International Space University on numerous occasions and was elected as a member of the voluntary global faculty of the International Space University in 2016.[7] Patten was the first Irish participant at Project PoSSUM and has completed high-g flights, hypoxia training, aviation egress training and spacesuit testing and evaluations.[8][9]

Communication and Outreach

Patten is a strong advocate for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)[10]. She is an experienced communicator and has appeared on several national television shows, including Virgin Media One Ireland AM [11] and numerous radio programs, including Today FM[12]. She regularly gives keynote speeches and works with Irish companies to promote STEM initiatives[13]. Patten was among Limerick's Top 40 under 40[1] featured in Image (magazine) as part of the Changemakers series in 2018[14].

Patten created Planet Zebunar, a STEM product for children that is inclusive, non-gender specific and offers an immersive experience through the combination of offline and online technologies, namely augmented reality [15]. Patten's mission is to develop a community of STEM enthusiasts and inspire the next generation of engineers, astronauts, scientists and innovators [16].

gollark: Too bad!
gollark: Maybe require a warning or something, at most?
gollark: So inform them, don't force them to not do things.
gollark: I mean, our government does that for some stuff (drugs) and it's quite bad.
gollark: Giving governments the power to stop people who want to from doing things to themselves *at all* is somewhat abusable and problematic.

References
  1. "Andy Lee, Joy Neville and Dr Norah Patten among 'Limerick's Top 40 Under 40' honourees". 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  2. "Getting the next generation excited about space, Norah Patten, International Space University and Planet Zebunar founder – Irish Tech News". irishtechnews.ie. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  3. "Mayo woman Dr. Norah Patten set to become the first Irish person to go into space | JOE.ie". JOE.ie. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  4. "Ireland's First Secondary School Experiment in Space: The Only Way is Up". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  5. "Mayo scientist counting down to her first space flight". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  6. "2015 Emerging and Future Space Leaders Grant Winners | Iaf". www.iafastro.org. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  7. MarieW (2016-03-31). "ISU welcomes new 2016 Faculty Nominations". Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  8. "Norah in training to make the first giant leap for Ireland's step into space". 2018-04-28. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  9. "Mayo scientist counting down to her first space flight". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  10. silicon (2018-03-07). "The Pipeline Protectors: 33 women educating the next generation of STEM talent". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  11. Norah Patten (2018-01-14), Dr. Norah Patten speaking with Ireland AM, retrieved 2018-10-03
  12. "Norah Patten Could Be Ireland's First Space Visitor". Today FM. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  13. "Irish astronaut candidate at launch of AbbVie's latest science education initiative". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  14. IMAGE. "The Changemakers: Dr Norah Patten on getting set to become Ireland's first astronaut | IMAGE.ie". IMAGE.ie. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  15. "Getting the next generation excited about space, Norah Patten, International Space University and Planet Zebunar founder – Irish Tech News". irishtechnews.ie. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  16. "Planet Zebunar - Planet Zebunar". Planet Zebunar. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.