Research Matters: UOG MAGIC Lab expands funding, research capacity in the Pacific

Research Matters: UOG MAGIC Lab expands funding, research capacity in the Pacific

Research Matters: UOG MAGIC Lab expands funding, research capacity in the Pacific


9/29/2025
NASA Guam Space Grant and NASA Guam EPSCoR associate director, Dr. Romina King, alongside co-remote-pilot-in-command and environmental science graduate student, Jonelle Sayama, present the mapping imagery captured via drone to the team at the National Weather Service Guam Forecast Office.
A drone flies above a scorched landscape at the Quinene plantation in southern Guam during a mapping mission to capture post-fire imagery of the burn site in February 2024.
Jonelle Sayama and Andrea Velasquez of the UOG Drone Corps observe a drone mid-flight during a coral mapping mission at a beach near Beach Road in Saipan on November 21, 2024.
Dr. Leslie Aquino, executive director of NASA Guam EPSCoR, presents an orthomosaic map that details the UOG Drone Corps mapping efforts post-typhoon Mawar at the 15th 91快播 Conference on Island Sustainability, held from April 8-13, 2024.
NASA Guam Space Grant hosts the STEM Saturday series. Participants collaborate and strategize while playing the 鈥楳ission to Space鈥 board game during May鈥檚 STEM Saturday module, 鈥淎 Trip to Outer Space.鈥
COM-FSM students observe a DJI M350 drone remote controller held by NASA Guam Research Associate II Jonelle Sayama during an outreach presentation at the National Campus on July 18, 2025 in Pohnpei.
A Drone Corps member carefully operates a DJI remote controller, executing a precise flight route for a mapping mission at the As Gadao plantation.

 

From land to sea鈥攁nd now the skies鈥攖he 91快播 is expanding its research in all directions.

While UOG is proudly a Land Grant and institution, it鈥檚 also launching new frontiers in space-related research through programs funded by NASA.

At the center of this work is the Micronesian Area Geospatial Information Center, MAGIC, Lab, a research hub within UOG鈥檚 College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

The lab leads five grant-funded programs: NASA Guam EPSCoR, NASA Guam Space Grant, the UOG Drone Corps, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Climate-Smart Commodities.

Research Matters is a new editorial series from the 91快播 Office of Research and Sponsored Programs that brings readers into the world of UOG鈥檚 research centers. The column runs every other Monday in the Guam Pacific Daily News (PDN).