Dear Students, I hope all is well! You are invited to a virtual ECE Department Seminar, "NASA's Journey to Mars," scheduled for Monday, November 16, 4:00 pm-5:00 pm via Zoom Webinar. Please see event details below. This seminar qualifies for the ECE 795-Seminar Attendance-requirement. ECE Department Seminar Title: "NASA's Journey to Mars" Date/ Time: November 16, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Zoom Webinar Link: https://gmu.zoom.us/j/96266569390 Abstract: Have you ever looked up at the sky and wondered what's out there, ready to be explored? Looking at that orange dot and wondering if humans will one day go there? Mars has inspired and captured people's imagination for centuries! The goal of NASA's Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery through a carefully selected series of robotic orbiters, landers and mobile laboratories interconnected by a high-bandwidth Mars/Earth communications network. One of the key points of this program is to consider the potential for Mars to have hosted life (its “biological potential”), paving the way for the future exploration of Mars by humans. In this talk, Armian Hanelli from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will go over some former, current and future Mars missions, showing some of the challenges that the engineers have had to overcome to achieve success on a different planet! Bio: Armian Hanelli joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 2019 as a digital parts specialist. He received his A.S. from Northern Virginia Community College (2014), his B.S. from Virginia Tech (2016) and his M.S. from Caltech (2018), all in electrical engineering. He received the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship throughout his undergraduate and graduate careers. He started out at JPL as a summer intern working on cryogenic electronics research. He is currently working on digital parts reliability for use in space applications, especially focusing on qualifying modern technologies for space. In his free time, Armian enjoys programming, personal investing and embracing life as a hobbyist photographer. Best regards, Patricia Patricia Sahs Academic Program Coordinator Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering George Mason University 4400 University Drive, MSN 1G5 Fairfax, VA 22030 Phone: 703-993-1523 Fax: 703-993-1601