The
SAVE/Point team is comprised of astronomers and educators. Our mission is creating fun, engaging and scientifically accurate educational activities that are widely accessible and on multiple devices and browsers.
We are committed to delivering new educational platforms that will
- engage students, educators and astronomy enthusiasts through an imaginative gamified experience that rewards learning;
- provide a hands-on "virtual lab" where users can develop an intuition for astronomical concepts and the scientific method;
- supply educators with an array of customizable educational components for use in classrooms and informal educational settings;
- provide a testbed for future assessments of the effectiveness of educational game environments in STEM education.
Our work was funded by the Longhorn Innovation Fund for Technology for 2014-2015.
Lead System Engineer
Stefano Meschiari was a W. J. McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
He is currently a Data Scientist at Stripe.
He is the principal investigator and lead programmer and designer of the SAVE/Point collaboration,
developing apps and games with a focus on astronomy education. His research focuses in understanding
how planetary systems form, discovering new exoplanets, and coming up with new ways to involve the public
in the excitement of the exoplanet age.
Dr. Randi Ludwig
Space Academy Principal
Randi Ludwig is the Assistant Director of UTeach Primary and faculty in the University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences, where she develops hands-on curricula and teaches science courses designed for elementary education majors. She puts her classroom and curriculum development experience to use in the SAVE/point collaboration by designing learning objectives for game levels, evaluating accessibility for users of many backgrounds, and assessing the effectiveness of game design on user understanding of scientific concepts.
Space Orchestra Director
Joel Green is the Project Scientist in the Office of Public Outreach at Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates the science mission of the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. Previously he was a Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin. He contributes the original music tracks, story, and assists in level and app design.
Dr. Irina Marinova
Irina Marinova is an adjunct professor of physics at Southwestern University. She has a passion for astronomy education and loves working with K-12 students and teachers. She is working to bring the game apps to public venues in the community.
Dr. Natalie Gosnell
Natalie Gosnell is a W. J. McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on binary stars including the products of stellar mergers, collisions, or mass transfer. She assists with keeping the SAVE/Point website and app information up to date.