TWU kinesiology team wins NASA-themed design competition, again!

April 15, 2026 - DENTON - Did you know that the bottom of your foot is covered in tiny sensors that are critical to balance and walking? While these sensors, called plantar mechanoreceptors, are vital on Earth, they are effectively muted in microgravity and can cause astronauts to lose 40 percent of their calf muscle mass in long-duration space flight.

To solve this problem, a team of Texas Woman's kinesiology students designed a pneumatic device that earned them first place overall at a NASA-sponsored statewide design competition that wrapped up on April 14.

The team, dubbed Team Mercurian, researched and fabricated a mechanical boot to stimulate those foot sensors using pressure to promote muscle activation in the lower limbs. Besides taking the top prize, the four seniors also grabbed second place in oral presentation and peer review. Team members Gabriella Powell (team lead), Candela Fidalgo Garcia, Natalie Vogel and Austin Travis received scholarships for their project.

The win marked the sixth time since 2018 that a team of TWU undergraduate kinesiology students took the top overall prize at the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge. The previous team that took first was the all-female group in fall 2024.

"I am incredibly proud of our team and all the work they put into this project," said Shawn Huang, assistant kinesiology professor and faculty mentor. "They invested hundreds of hours over the semester, and as kinesiology students, they not only applied their expertise in health sciences, but also learned new engineering-related skills such as coding, prototyping and technical problem-solving."

TWU was the only kinesiology department represented at the two-day TSGC Challenge, which took place just outside of Houston. The majority of the 20 college teams in the competition are made up of engineering students.

The TSGC Design Challenge offers undergraduate students an opportunity to propose, design and fabricate a solution toward solving research objectives of importance to NASA and its mission.

For the last four years, TWU teams have focused on mitigating muscle atrophy in long-duration space flight for their projects at the statewide competition. The spring 2026 team project built upon work done by the fall 2022 team, which created a boot that used two inflatable airbags placed under the forefoot and heel.

The spring 2026 team upgraded the boot into a completely mechanical device. The big improvement was replacing the airbags with alternating air pistons. The integrated pneumatic pressure targeted specific points on the heel and forefoot in an effort to stimulate those receptors and mimic the feeling of walking.

While sitting during sedentary activities in space, astronauts can wear the boot and operate it two or three times a day, 20 minutes on each foot.

"What made the team's project unique was their ability to turn a complex physiological problem into a practical solution," Huang said. "Their design not only used targeted pneumatic stimulation to help preserve lower-limb muscle activation in microgravity, but also incorporated sensor monitoring, safety controls and experimental testing to show the concept's potential."

The first-place finish continues a successful run for TWU'sSchool of Health Promotion and Kinesiology's research internship team. Over 15 semesters that Texas Woman's teams have entered the competition, they've finished in the top four 13 times.

The four seniors, who are all graduating in May, are not done yet. They will also be presenting at TWU's Student Creative Arts and Research Symposium on April 21 and 22, and the TWU School of Health Promotion and Kinesiology Symposium on April 30.

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