Engineering students get some ‘space’ to launch their dreams

Engineering students in the city will now get a chance to be astronomers. US Space & Rocket Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, have announced a programme for first- and second-year students of science and engineering courses, wherein 15 students will spend eight days at the Space Engineering Academy at Huntsville next March.

Sudhir Kamath, Space Camp ambassador, India, said the programme would allow students  to work on simulated space missions, build model rockets and even launch a satellite. “At the end of the programme, students will launch a balloon satellite. It is essentially a working satellite and will soar up to 75,000 feet up in the air. And students will also analyse the data from space once they recover this satellite,” he said.

Kamath said the programme is meant for first-year engineering students but BSc students, too, can apply.

Kamath sees this as an opportunity for students aspiring to study abroad to get exposure at one of the best universities. “They will meet the dean of the university and anyone who does this programme will earn one hour’s freshman credit from the university,” he said.

Based on the success of the programme, one can expect such activities to be organised in the near future, said Kamath. “This will be the pilot batch. We are looking at conducting this programme at least three to four times in the year and we also want to expand it to the rest of the country. The problem is, we have to coordinate with three different organisations,” he noted.
Kamath cited logistics as the reason for not offering scholarship to aspirants. “Right now, the programme is self-financed (priced at `1.95 lakh) because these were the only dates available to us and we don’t have enough time on our hands but we are working on it (for the future programmes),” he says. The last date for registrations is January 21.