June 27th through July 1st, the SUSU Aerospace Engineering Research and Education Centre and the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology organized the summer Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School for Pupils at South Ural State University. The School aims at promoting scientific activity in Aerospace Engineering among pupils.
In the course of five days school pupils had an opportunity to try their hand in the profession of an engineer exploring the infinite outer space.
"The program for participants includes a course of lectures, seminars and interactive classes. Students learn about the spacecraft composition, types of engines, and their designation. The kinds had to solve an engineering problem. We provide the participants with constituent element and they need to figure out how these work and what these are used for only within a couple of days," told the summer School organizer, design engineer, member of the teaching staff of the Department of Aircraft Engines Elena Sulatskaia.
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School pupils of the 7th-11th form could become the project participants. A task was set before them, to develop the most effective support structure for a landing module that would allow a spacecraft to land on an improvised asteroid with the lowest rebound. To solve the set task, the kids could use a 3D printer to create the required parts.
"For the young participants, this School is a great chance to learn about the space industry, partially in the form of a game. For the future graduates, our School helps choose the field of their professional activity. I think that this School has been a success: the participants seem to be thrilled, and the curators have gained an experience in leading teams towards a common goal," shared the project manager, SUSU student Vladimir Vasilev.
During the closing day of the School, the teams tested their inventions at the dynamic test stand. The team who engineered the most viable design, according to the jury's opinion, were awarded the certificate as the winners. Other kinds received the certificates of participants. The team of the youngest designers were marked by the jury in a special nomination "For thirst for knowledge".
"It was a difficult task to complete only within 5 days, but we made it. The curators helped us find all the required equipment for our mini-version of a spacecraft," commented the captain of one of the participant teams Vildan Latypov.
This School is held twice a year. The two-week winter Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School is planned to start in January of 2023.
South Ural State University is a university of digital transformations, where innovative research is conducted in most of the priority fields of science and technology development. In accordance with the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university is focused on the development of big scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of digital industry, materials science, and ecology. In 2021 SUSU became the winner in the competition under the Priority 2030 program. The university acts as a regional project office of the World-class Ural Interregional Research and Education Centre (UIREC).