Since 2022, Brownsville Porter Early College High School has consistently placed teams in a NASA workforce development mentoring competition in which students work on space exploration projects alongside NASA engineers.
The program is called HUNCH, which stands for High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. NASA promotes it as a “nationally recognized workforce development program with a 23-year legacy of preparing the next generation of innovators and leaders.”
Via video conferencing, national competitions take place each year through the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Winners could eventually see their projects included on missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, said Claudia Cortez, a Career and Technical Education engineering teacher who introduced the program at Porter after learning about it several years ago at a Technology Student Association conference in Fort Worth.
So far, Porter teams have competed in design & prototype, biomedical science, and culinary competitions. Several teams have reached semifinal competition, she said.
Two recent Porter graduates, one now at the University of Texas at Austin, the other at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, recently discussed the program with The Brownsville Herald via email.
Both said discussions with NASA engineers and other aspects of the mentorship program have proved invaluable to completing collegiate engineering coursework.
“Participating in the NASA HUNCH program at Porter had a major impact on my transition to UT,” sophomore Mario Hernandez wrote.
“The experience of working directly with NASA engineers prepared me for the kind of open-ended, technical problem-solving that college-level engineering requires. I entered UT already comfortable collaborating in a professional environment, documenting my work, and tackling real engineering challenges.”
Hernandez was part of a team that in 2022-2023 was a semifinalist for its design and prototype of a lunar scooter wheel.
“Because of the foundation I gained through HUNCH, I was able to begin undergraduate research my very first semester. I assisted in additive manufacturing research under UT Austin ECE Professor Michael Becker, performing atomic strain analysis on Al₂O₃ particles using data from supercomputer simulations and visualizing the results in MATLAB. The skills I built in HUNCH, especially learning to communicate clearly with engineers and approach problems systematically, made it possible for me to contribute meaningfully to that work right away,” Hernandez said in an email to The Herald.
Camila San Miguel, a UTRGV freshman who at Porter last year was part of a design team that reached the semifinals for a diagnostic medical tool adapter, reported a similar experience.
“Being part of NASA HUNCH taught me so many valuable skills. It honestly felt like real-world engineering, almost like having an actual job with NASA. We had deadlines, research requirements, constant communication with engineers, and expectations to design, prototype, and test our ideas,” she said.
San Miguel said the program’s level of structure pushed her to grow.
“It strengthened my creativity, engineering skills, and my ability to problem-solve under pressure. Collaboration also played a huge role. We exchanged CAD data, information, and concepts the way an engineering team actually does. Being with the engineers of NASA taught me how collaboration works on that level, and it made me even more eager to continue pursuing the study of engineering,” she said.
San Miguel said when she got to UTRGV, she immediately saw how much NASA HUNCH had helped her.
“A lot of the work in my mechanical engineering classes follows the same engineering design process we used in HUNCH research, CAD modeling, early prototypes, revisions, testing, and final presentations. Because I already had experienced doing all of that, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the workload or the expectations. In fact, I felt ahead in many areas, especially when it came to organizing projects, communicating with teammates, and managing deadlines.”
“The transition from high school to university-level engineering felt smooth, and I credit a lot of that to the hands-on experience I got through the program. NASA HUNCH is one of the best opportunities available to students. It’s incredibly realistic when it comes to teamwork, networking, deadlines, and hands-on engineering work. It definitely helped me get ready for college-level engineering and made me much more confident at UTRGV,” San Miguel said.
Hernandez, the UT sophomore, said HUNCH connections helped him meet other highly motivated students and find his community in Austin.
“That network even helped me join the Longhorn Rocketry Association. The person who reviewed my application recognized me because we had crossed paths back in spring 2023, when we both made it to the NASA finals. That moment showed me how many doors the program opened,” he wrote.
Cortez provided additional details about other NASA HUNCH projects:
In 2022-2023, a team that included Hernandez and Gunar Williams reached the semifinals for a lunar scooter wheel design.
In 2023-2024, a biomedical science project about mental health in space by Dana Perez, Sandra Salazar and Lesly Vega reached the semifinals, as did a project involving 3D printed medical devices by Hazel and Mario Hernandez.
In 2024-2025, other team members on San Miguel’s biomedical science project included Diego Padilla, Abraham Ruiz, and Silverio Gatica-Portugal.
In 2023-2024, several projects received honorable mention, including by Johncarlos Mendoza and Jose Palomo for lunar art, one for suction cups, and another for a mobility arm.
This school year, Porter has nine NASA HUNCH projects under way, including:
Design & Prototype
>> Mars transit vehicle
>> “chess from trash,” two teams
Biomedical Science
>> packaging designs for medications, two teams
>> lunar smart adaptive habitat design with artificial intelligence monitoring for crew adaptive positive mental health
>> portable IV fluid
Culinary Challenge
>> Tacos, two teams
“The challenge is to create tacos that are healthy. They have certain requirements nutrition-wise so the tacos can someday go up and the astronauts can taste them, and they can be on-board,” Cortez said.
The challenge is to take place Feb. 10, she said.
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