A science, technology, engineering and math program at a Maryland high school is helping a student pursue her dream of one day becoming an astronaut.

Freshman Sarah Gerst walks the hallways of Mercy High School, keeping her inspiration close for a career that might one day lead to her dream job.

"I would love to be an astronaut," Sarah said.

Sarah is already on her way. Since the summer before fifth grade, she has been going to space and aviation camps at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

"Honestly, everything just speaks to me about it. I love these camps with my whole heart. I've always been interested in space and space exploration since I was very young," Sarah said.

She hopes to get some flight hours soon as part of the Civil Air Patrol. Mercy is helping young women pursue careers in the STEM field with Project Lead the Way, a nationally recognized science and engineering program that focuses on biomedical sciences.

Freshmen students, like Sarah, are learning about forensics.

"Solving a crime, they've been doing DNA analysis, they've been working through it, they've been looking at hair follicles, fingerprints," said Rena Collector, coordinator of Project Lead the Way.

It's classwork that keeps her grounded now, but Sarah is looking ahead at NASA's next mission, thinking about the Artemis crew.

"I think it's really great that they are sending women and also people of color to the moon. At Mercy, we are all about empowering women, and that's a beautiful thing," Sarah said.

Watch the video above for the full story.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Smartphones and GPS have made paper maps virtually obsolete and put the power of navigation in our pockets. But now, engineers are working on a high-tech update for another directional tool that could revolutionize how we find our way around.

The first street signs date back hundreds of years. They help you figure out where you are and where you’re going.

But what if they could be updated throughout the day, hour by hour to keep you informed about what’s happening around you?

“This is a fully-functioning street sign that allows you to essentially market, advertise and communicate out to the public,” Michael Ottoman said, showing off a hi-tech version of the old street sign.

Ottoman is the president of Points Lab, LLC., the makers of a hi-tech smart sign known as the Points Sign, and it could be the future of street signs.

It looks simple enough from the outside, but it’s actually very complex.

“It allows municipalities to speak to the community,” said Ottoman. “It allows the local shops to speak to the community and allows the community to come in and get directions for information itself.”

The smart sign is essentially a stationary robot driven by artificial intelligence that can provide real-time, up-to-date directional information to help you get to where you want to be.

Three fins rotate about the pole as information is fed into the Points Sign.

“If you're at an amusement park and you want to go on a ride, it can tell you what direction the right is, but also can tell you what the wait time for that right is as well,” said Sajid Patel, CEO and co-founder of Optimal Design.

The project is a collaboration between the Points Lab and Patel’s award-winning engineering team Optimal Design, a technology innovation firm that develops everything from wearables and virtual reality gear to smart city products like the Points Sign.

“Our specialty is being able to develop outdoor electronics that have a lot of ruggedization built into them. So, everything from making sure it's earthquake-proof to hurricane, wind resistance-proof. And then there's always the use and abuse factor as well,” said Patel.

The street sign features a touchscreen display panel as well.

“It's interactive, meaning you can go up to the display itself,” said Ottoman. “You can say, ‘What's going on for dining?’ It drops down some dining locations for what you're interested in.”

The display menu updates as everything around it does. As more appropriate, popular, or timely events approach, the menu refreshes its options.

“You might want to have a lightning detector out in the park so that it can pick up and send information at lightning struck and then sound an alarm, saying ‘Everybody off the ball field,’” said Ottoman.

From an advertising standpoint, it can detect how many people are around it and point them to a sale at a local café.

If there’s a local emergency, it can adjust its message or change directions to point crowds to safety shelters during a storm.

“If there's, for example, an Amber Alert or if there is a tornado warning, that type of messaging, that emergency messaging will take precedent over everything else,” said Ottoman.

The smart street sign can be made permanent, semi-permanent, and even temporary for short-term events like conventions and outdoor concerts.

Touted as the most advanced directional smart sign on Earth, the Points Sign will begin rolling out in smart cities, convention centers, and even airports in the coming year.

HAMPTON, Va. — A test airplane that could change the way people fly is nearing completion in California, with Virginia scientists and engineers playing a big role in making it happen.

NASA's X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft is designed to break the sound barrier without the loud and disruptive sonic boom that typically accompanies Mach 1 speeds, leading to the banning of supersonic travel over land.

The NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, took an early lead in the project, known as Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, when it began a few years ago.

"People would rather have faster air travel if they could so our goal with this project is to have those rules changed," said Craig Nickol, the project manager for the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator.

Nickol, who's based at Langley, says research centers across the country are working on the project, including around 20-30 scientists and engineers in the Hampton area.

Langley played a key role in early design and testing. Specific major contributions include the creation of a real-time camera and screen system pilots will use to see out of the aircraft, which lacks a cockpit window due to design constraints.

"They've actually finished it. They've done ground tests on that system, they've even done flight tests on the system and it's been delivered out to the West Coast already from Langley," Nickol said.

With Lockheed Martin set to finish construction on the X-59 this year, ground testing can begin as early as this fall, Nickol says, with the first test flight set for Summer 2022.

According to NASA, test flights over Armstrong Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base will follow in 2023 to ensure the aircraft works as designed. From there, the agency will test over select communities across the country to see how people react.

The hope is to turn flight data over to federal and international aviation regulators in 2027, who could change the rules allowing for supersonic travel over land.

"I've always been an airplane nut and this is kind of like the best thing you could think of to do as an aerospace engineer is to be able to have a chance to design, build and test a whole new airplane, a research airplane that could potentially change the way we travel," Nickol said.

With travel times cut roughly in half, a whole new world of travel could be opened, with much of the early work done in Hampton Roads.

This story was originally published by Anthony Sabella at WTKR.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Cardiac pacemakers require wires to be implanted in the chest to help control the patient’s heartbeat. But now researchers have developed the first-ever wireless, battery-free pacing device that doesn’t have to be removed.

It’s an implantable electrical device that dissolves inside your body after it’s done with its work.

“One of the key features of this system is very thin, silica, nanomembrane. Actually, this is the only active part of this device,” said Yeonsik David Choi, lead developer of the device in the Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University and lead author of the study.

It may sound like science fiction but it’s turning into science fact.

“The idea here is to create sort of an alternative type of temporary pacemaker that doesn't require extraction. It’s purely wireless. There are no leads coming out of the chest,” said John Rogers, professor of material science and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University.

“The thickness is around 300 nanometers,” said Choi.

The razor-thin sliver of silicon could revolutionize the future of temporary pacemakers.

“It's built around what we refer to as transient electronic materials. These are materials that dissolve naturally when exposed to biofluids,” said Rogers.

The device itself would be attached to the heart at the tail end of surgery without needing an external box, batteries, or wires. Charging is achieved through a wireless inductive power transfer.

“Which is essentially how cell phones can be charged by the charging mats, where you can just place your phone onto the mat and power is transferred to power your phone,” explained Rose Yin, a George Washington researcher, and the study’s surgical coordinator.

The biodegradable materials, which include water-soluble silicon, magnesium, and wax, would dissolve over the course of 5-7 weeks.

Biomedical scientists at Northwestern and George Washington Universities have been investigating an alternative to traditional pacemakers for the better part of a decade.

“The current pace technology is not adequate. It's not optimal simply because these wires tend to get dislodged. They can get infected,” said Dr. Rishi Arora, a Northwestern professor of cardiology and co-author of the study.

He says this technology could eliminate the disadvantages of wired pacing and surgical extraction after the temporary pacemaker is no longer needed.

“We have nothing great right now to offer people that need it, that need more than a few days of temporary pacing support,” said Arora. “I think something like this could really help patients in the longer term.”

They’ve already successfully tested the device in small and large animals, and soon could be seeking approval for investigational testing in humans.

“You could also think of it as an electronic form of a medicine in the sense that it's a device that's present only when you need it,” said Rogers. “It's eventually expelled from the body, very much like a pharmaceutical, but it's a piece of engineered technology in electronic medicine.”

Researchers say it will likely be another two years before it’s approved for human testing. But it could be a major leap forward in a more non-invasive approach to keeping the heart ticking.