When the Academic High Altitude Conference convened Wednesday, June 27, on Trevecca Nazarene University’s campus, the first activity was a high-altitude balloon launch. The balloon carried experiments created in pre-conference workshops by participants. Science students also submitted posters for a poster exhibit.

Trevecca was pleased to host the conference - its first time in Nashville. The conference brought together scientists, professors, and educators from Canada and all over the U.S. who teach or work in the field of high-altitude research. 

Conference speakers included David Voss and Paul Verhage. Voss is the program manager for the University NanoSat (Nanosatellite) Program at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Verhage, a former U.S. Air Force officer and college network administrator, teaches electronics at Washburn Institute of Technology, in Topeka, Kansas.

Conference planner Matthew Huddleston uses high-altitude weather balloons in his teaching at Trevecca. His students have developed research projects related to the upper atmosphere and tested those projects via high-altitude balloon launches. Additionally, Huddleston has worked with teachers in local schools in order to expand interest in this kind of high-altitude research for their school students.
--Trevecca Nazarene University