In October, the Aerospace and Innovation Academy successfully executed its 2nd annual SmallSat Education Conference. The conference was held on October 28-29th, 2023, at Kennedy Space Center's Astronaut Memorial Foundation Center for Space Education. This conference, a great success, consisted of seven presentations, seven workshops, 13 posters, and 25 exhibitors. Of these, a wide variety of institutions were represented, including universities, NASA programs, and many pre-college groups. An astounding 350 individuals attended the conference, including many of the WCDT’s own members. Following the conference, the Wolfpack attended a Preliminary Design Review for its WolfSat-1.
Students and educators alike eagerly absorbed the information presented in many of the workshops. Some of the workshop options consisted of High Altitude Balloons (HABs), Satellite Data Access and Analysis, Machine Learning, Innovation and Educational Outreach, and the Fundamentals of Sautering. Additionally, students were invited to participate in an art contest with a theme of a vision of a future in space. The contest was in collaboration with the National Space Society and targeted young children to university-level students. Receiving more than 5600 entries, smallsateducation.org holds the grand winner.
Overall, it is evident that this conference was quite a success for the WCDT and the many other groups in attendance. In just a few days, students from the team will represent and present at the AIAA SciTech conference in Orlando, FL. Some of the topics being presented include CubeSat VR, Psychological factors in CubeSat success, PocketQubes, Picosatellites, and CubeSat emulators. We wish these students the best of luck!
