• UT-Tyler Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Dr. Shawana Tabassum is leading the NASA-funded Leaf Sensor Network In Situ and Multiparametric Analysis of Crop Stressors project.
• For this project, Dr. Tabassum has designed novel, wireless, multivariable leaf sensors to check plant hormone levels associated with stress.
• Dr. Tabassum is working with plant scientist Dr. Nithya Rajan of Texas A&M, who will use these novel sensors on cowpeas to link stress levels to plant performance.  
• Dr. Rajan’s experiment will also study the plants under relevant stressors associated with space.  Variables such as temperature, light, and even lightweight media will be controlled and examined.  
• Dr. Tabassum and Dr. Rajan’s research has important implications for astrobotany research: how can these new sensors help predict how plants will grow in the stressful environment of space?  

Let’s grow plants in space!