On Oct. 22, 2012, former NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, Phys’86, MS EE’90, became executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA is a 35,000-member technical society focused on the global aerospace profession.

Magnus, who lived aboard the International Space Station for four months, was one of four astronauts to fly on the space shuttle program’s final flight aboard Atlantis in July 2012.

Two former S&T cheerleaders made the national news last fall thanks to a Homecoming marriage proposal caught on video that went viral.

Band members, who traditionally call out requests of the cheer squad, yelled to the group of alumni on the sidelines, “Hey cheerleaders, we want to see a marriage proposal.” The cheerleaders holding Tara Biggers, Phys’09, aloft spun her around to face her boyfriend of six years Chris Balven, BAdm’07, who was also held aloft, on bended knee. She accepted the proposal to the marching band strains of “Hey Baby.”

Erica Long, CE’03, a senior academic advisor in mechanical and aerospace engineering and S&T cheer and dance coach, filmed the proposal and posted the video to YouTube. By Thanksgiving, the video had been viewed more than 13,000 times.

Late in October, a cable news program called Right This Minute picked up the story. The video aired along with an interview with Biggers and Balven. But the story grew. It aired on the ABC Television program Good Morning America on Nov. 19, and later that week, was picked up by CNN.

Balven said proposing to Biggers during the football game, while cheering, seemed natural.

“That’s how we met,” Balven told Right This Minute. “I thought it would be kind of a cool idea to get the engagement to happen there.” The cheerleaders who assisted with the proposal are all alumni the couple cheered with in college.

The founders of IDC Projects, a gaming company started by three S&T alumni, stepped up their game last fall by getting an infusion of capital from two St. Louis investors. The firm was one of 15 St. Louis-area startup companies to win $50,000 from Arch Grants to further develop the business. Arch Grants also provides free legal and accounting help, plus access to angel investors.

IDC raised another $50,000 from Capital Innovators, a technology accelerator fund based in downtown St. Louis.

IDC Projects is a gaming and mobile app firm founded in 2008 by then-Missouri S&T students Michael Orlando, IDE’09, EE’10, MS EMgt’12, R.J. Miller, IDE’10, and Colby Hall, EMgt’09, MBA’10. The firm released its latest mobile game, Motocross Sniper, a virtual paintball app, last fall. The company’s first product was a free iPhone app that counts down the number of days until the next Best Ever St. Pat’s celebration. That app was created in 2008, in time for the 100th anniversary of St. Pat’s.

For more information about the company, visit idcprojects.com.

Trevor Wiggins, ME’96, switched from professional racing to drag racing so he could bring his wife and kids along and get them involved in the sport.

Featured in the July 2012 issue of Drag Illustrated magazine, Wiggins says the people who participate in motorsports are the type of people — smart, hardworking and ethical — that he wanted his kids to be raised around.

Wiggins’ son, 6-year-old Grady, proved he’s got his dad’s racing gene in October when he made his driving debut at the Music City Quarter Midget Racing Association track in Nashville, Tenn. Grady set a new track record for the fastest lap by a novice and, after missing the start, came from the back of the pack to win the main race.