The WVU Microgravity Research Team was established in 2001 in order to introduce undergraduate students to microgravity research in a meaningful way. The team is highly competitive with only a handful of openings every year. I joined the team during the Spring semester of 2021 where I became the hardware team lead. During the course of our research, we have successfully developed the first cold spray additive manufacturing device for use in microgravity applications as well as the first titanium-dioxide-nanoparticle-microemulsion foam-spray-coating device for microgravity applications. 

The cold spray additive manufacturing system developed by the WVU Microgravity Research Team utilizes a compressed gas cylinder, in-line heater, and custom converging/diverging (CD) nozzle to accelerate particles past the sound barrier in order to fuse them to a metal substrate. The benefit of cold spray additive manufacturing is that two dissimilar metals can be fused together with minimal energy requirement. This technology is currently used to repair metal parts as well as build up 3D metal parts which require finishing.