From left, Daisy Li, Suzanna Tesfamicheal, Leslie Browning-Samoni and Amarige “Sunny” Yusufji
An interdisciplinary team of undergraduate students is making waves with a NASA-focused project aimed at designing flexible, low-profile seams to prevent hazardous lunar dust from entering spacesuits. Their innovative work earned the 2025 Best Innovation Award at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and was recently featured in Fort Worth Magazine, WFAA and Women’s Wear Daily.
The team included biochemistry majors Daisy Li and Amarige “Sunny” Yusufji, along with fashion merchandising majors Suzanna Tesfamicheal, a John V. Roach Honors student, and Adelaide Lovett, a double major in psychology. The team was led and mentored by Leslie Browning-Samoni, instructor II in fashion merchandising.
The team is open to exploring how their seam design could be applied beyond space travel, potentially enhancing protection in personal protective equipment (PPE) apparel and gear.
“Using such seams for added protection for workers who spray fields with pesticides is being explored,” Browning-Samoni explained to Women’s Wear Daily. “We don’t want to just use it for one area. We want to see where else it could be applicable.”
Read the original story TCU News, and see the media coverage from Fort Worth Magazine, WFAA and Women’s Wear Daily.
