Indian Students Win Global Aerospace Competition, CanSat 2017

 

  • Team Astral of UPES consisting of Engineering and Design students proved their mettle to grab first position at CanSat 2017
  • CanSat is one of the most prestigious space related competition organised by American Astronautical Society (AAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

New Delhi, June 28, 2017: Team Astral of UPES (University of Petroleum and Energy Studies) has made its alma mater and country proud by securing first rank globally at CanSat 2017. CanSat is a prestigious annual design-build-fly competition with space related themes organized by American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). 40 teams from across the world were competing in the finals this year held at Texas, U.S.A including Princeton University, University of Manchester, University of Alabama, VIT University and National Aviation Academy.

Team Astral of UPES is a 23 member multi-domain team with students from Aerospace Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Material Science Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Engineering and design studies. The team has been participating in CanSat competition since 2013 and in a short span of five years has reached no. 1 ranking.

Talking about this achievement Dr. Ugur Guven, Professor – Aerospace Department (UPES) and Advisory Council Member at UN Center for Space Science and Space Technology Education in Asia Pacific said, “UPES students winning CanSat 2017 is a matter of great pride for us and the country as it signifies India’s importance in the future of space technology. It parallels the recent successes of the Indian space program and prepares students for the role they will have to play when they eventually join the booming aerospace sector.”

 

Team Astral has won CanSat 2017 under the guidance of Dr. Ugur Guven and Prof. Zozimus Labana and support from School of Design Studies at UPES that helped them design and fabricate a payload with a re-entry container that simulates the process of a science probe traveling through a planetary atmosphere while collecting relevant data.

CanSat is an extremely rigorous competition and tests students’ analytical, creative, decision making, problem solving and collaborative skills besides their domain knowledge and expertise. CanSat also calls for the utilization of unique skills from different disciplines which helps to augment the multi-disciplinal skills of the contestants. The team has made significant improvement year after year to reach no. 1 position and now aims to retain this rank next year. So far no team has been able to retain the no.1 rank for two consecutive years.

The CanSat Competition is a design-build-fly competition that provides teams from across the globe with an opportunity to experience the design life-cycle of an aerospace system. The competition is designed to reflect a typical program on a small scale and includes all aspects from the preliminary design review to post mission review. The mission and its requirements are planned to reflect various aspects of real world missions including telemetry requirements, communications, and autonomous operations. Each team is scored throughout the competition on real-world deliverables such as schedules, design review presentations, and demonstration flights. A team has to design and fabricate the Mission Statement provided by the Competition and finally launch it at the competition site. Team Astral perfectly demonstrated the working of their CanSat system as per stated guidelines and were appreciated by officials of AAS, AIAA and NASA. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL) is an annual sponsor to the competition and is involved in evaluation process as well.

About UPES:

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) was established in the year 2003 through UPES Act, 2003 of the State Legislature of Uttarakhand. UPES is recognized by University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956 and accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).UPES offers 82 graduate and post graduate courses in the high-growth sectors like oil and gas, power, infrastructure, information technology, transportation, electronics, high technology, design, business, planning and architecture, public policy, legal studies and more. BBA, MBA, B Tech, M Tech, B Des, M Des, LLB, LLM, B Plan, M Plan, MA and many more are offered under these schools and colleges. Because of its multi disciplinary courses, UPES graduates are a preferred choice for the companies. UPES has maintained a consistent placement track record of 85% placements year on year. This demonstrates UPES’ commitment, quality of students, and the holistic approach of its dedicated faculty. UPES is a QS rated university with 5 Stars for both Employability (placements) and campus facilities and 4 Stars for Teaching.