This April, Dow High School’s Space Farmers traveled to Houston to present their biomedical innovations at the NASA HUNCH Final Design Review, joining a nationwide showcase of student projects addressing real challenges in human spaceflight.

Their presentation followed an earlier invitation to the NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop in January, where they were one of the few student teams presenting alongside NASA centers and institutes.

Sanvi Patel, Katie Cai, Emma Huang, Meha Shivakumar, and Viktor Pangburn tackled HUNCH Biomedical challenges in Psychological Evaluation and Medical Device Design. Under the team name Emotion AI Engineers, Patel, Cai, and Huang introduced VISTA-AI (Voice and Image Sentiment Tracking for Astronauts), an AI tool designed to monitor astronaut mental health through voice and facial recognition.

“We also got the exciting opportunity to meet two astronauts: Frank Rubio and Michael Barratt,” said Patel. “It was such an eye-opening experience to present our prototype to them and listen to their feedback. I had a great discussion with Michael Barratt, who had such a unique perspective from being on the International Space Station. He gave us ideas we plan to use to improve our prototype in the future.”

“Meeting Dr. Rubio and hearing his thoughts on our project was deeply inspiring,” said Shivakumar. Pangburn added, “Being at FDR, surrounded by cutting-edge projects and professionals, made everything feel real.”

Guided by NASA mentors Dr. Florence Gold, Alli Westover, and Michael Hayes, the Space Farmers refined their designs to align with NASA’s spaceflight health priorities.