Los Angeles Pierce College, Mission College and Valley College have been awarded a $50,000 planning prize from NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) to develop a new robotics competition for community college students in the San Fernando Valley.
“I’m so excited to lead this joint effort between LA Mission, Valley and Pierce colleges. Our collaboration is one of only nine community college projects in the nation selected by NASA this year to win this prize,” said Travis Orloff, Ph.D., department chair of Physics and Planetary Science at Pierce College and principal investigator for the project.
“We’ve never before had the opportunity to get so many students involved with a NASA project all at the same time. This one-of-a-kind experience has the ability to forever change their lives.”
The competition is a collaboration between the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) programs at each college, designed to engage students in hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) experiences and inspire pathways to careers in aerospace, engineering and technology. With more than 400 MESA students across the three participating colleges, Pierce College will host a multi-day event in June 2026.
“We are very excited to bring this competition to the San Fernando Valley and showcase our amazing students,” said Farisa Morales, Ph.D., dean of STEM at Mission College. “This is a great opportunity to raise the visibility of STEM education in our communities and show how programs like MESA connect students to real-world experiences and career pathways.”
Funded through NASA’s Open Innovation platform, HeroX, the program will challenge students to work in teams using LEGO robotics kits to solve real-world engineering problems. In addition to the competition, students will benefit from:
● Daily mentorship from STEM faculty and professionals
● Industry talks from experts at NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Southern California (USC), Boeing and Northrop Grumman
● Field trips to the California Science Center and USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering
“This competition is going to be incredible for our students,” said Jennifer Cole, Ph.D., dean of STEM at Valley College. “They’ll team up with peers from across the valley to tackle real engineering challenges while learning directly from NASA and industry experts. For many of our first-generation college students, this is the kind of hands-on experience that shows them they can be confident STEM leaders.”
For more information on the MESA Programs at each college, visit www.lapc.edu/mesa, www.lamission.edu/mesa, and www.lavc.edu/mesa.