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With Judo Legend Yosh Uchida as Her Coach, Spartan Marti Malloy Wins Bronze at London Olympics

With Judo Legend Yosh Uchida as Her Coach, Fellow Spartan Marti Malloy Wins Bronze at London Olympics

SJSU judoka Marti Malloy shares her medal with Coach Yosh Uchida (photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for the USOC).

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

With judo legend and fellow Spartan Yoshihiro Uchida watching from the stands, SJSU judoka Marti Malloy persevered through a tough series of matches to win a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.

A recent advertising graduate, Malloy came to San Jose from her native Oak Harbor, Wash., to train under Uchida, who has spent a lifetime cultivating judo into an Olympic sport.

In an interview with NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai, Malloy said “When I first got to San Jose, I was accepted into that program like I had been there my whole life, and ever since then, they’ve been my family.

“So just being able to bring home the medal for San Jose State and show all the hard work and dedication from the coaches and the whole San Jose State judo team — that’s winning alone for me.”

Meanwhile, Malloy’s fans here in San Jose held a viewing party to watch her compete, an event also captured by NBC Bay Area.

In a front page story in the San Jose Mercury News, columnist Mark Purdy describes how hard Malloy worked in London to bring home the bronze.

Malloy also appeared on the Today show, where she was recognized for being the second woman in U.S. Olympic history to medal in judo.

Cube Satellite Launches to International Space Station

By Sarah Kyo, Web Communications Specialist

TechEdSat, a NASA-sponsored cube satellite that SJSU aerospace engineering students have worked on, launched from Japan to the International Space Station.

NASA TV began its live-stream coverage on Friday, July 20, 6:15 p.m. PDT. Then 7:06 p.m. was the official launch of the Japanese transfer vehicle, which contains TechEdSat and four other cube satellites from international universities and organizations.

“Cubesats have been around, but this is the first ever deployed from the space station, thus it has to meet all the ISS requirements,” said Professor Periklis Papadopoulos, who also works at NASA Ames Research Center and served as a technical advisor on the project. “This has not been done before. Some of those requirements we had to help them define since there was no precedence.”

Normally, projects that are sent to the International Space Station take four and a half years to complete, said graduate student and system engineer Ali Guarneros Luna, but TechEdSat was completed in about nine months. The student team was responsible for designing and integrating the cube satellite’s system, as well as performing various tests and making sure it passed the standards of both the International Space Station and NASA.

In a NASA news release, Andres Martinez, program manager for Small Spacecraft Payloads and Technologies at Ames, said TechEdSat “will allow a group of very talented aerospace engineering students from San Jose State University to experience a spaceflight project from formulation through decommission of a small spacecraft.”

If this mission is successful, then it may lead to future cube satellites with a similar communication system.

Two Spartans Receive Emmys

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

At least two graduates of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications received Emmys at the National Academy Television Arts and Sciences 41st Annual Northern California Area Awards June 9. Mike Anderson, Photojournalism ‘10, won in the video essay (one camera only) category. His entry featured people with extraordinary jobs including a Google doodler, a crane operator, and an astronomer. Anderson’s stories air on NBC Bay Area, where he works as a web producer. Broadcast journalism alumnus and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area personality Brodie Brazil won in the on camera talent program host/moderator/reporter category. Also up for an Emmy was Brazil’s short documentary on the Spartans 1941 football team, which was in Honolulu for a game against the University of Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

View Anderson’s composite (video examples of his work).

View Brazil’s composite.

View “They Came for Football.”

Support SJSU in “Social Madness”!

Support SJSU in "Social Madness"

There’s just one week left to vote for SJSU in the first round of Social Madness, a social media competition developed by the American City Business Journals chain.

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

There’s just one week left to vote for San Jose State University in the first round of Social Madness, a social media competition developed by the American City Business Journals chain. The contest “showcases the best business social media growth strategies in a tournament-style challenge, played in a series of local and, then, nationwide rounds. More than 50 Silicon Valley businesses and organizations are contestants. Companies compete via online votes at the Silicon Valley Social Madness website [go to the “large companies” tab] and new connections on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn during the contest period,” said the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. The national winners will receive a $10,000 donation to the charity of their choice. SJSU is currently in fourth place in its division, right behind the biggest corporate names in Silicon Valley including Cisco, Adobe and Paypal. This puts us in a great position to make the second round. Here’s how to vote now (hit the “Large companies” tab)!