IAF International Student Workshop 2016 Summary

The third edition of the IAF International Student Workshop was co-orgnised by the International Astronautical Federation, the Mexican Space Agency and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey on Saturday 1 October 2016 in conjunction with the 67th International Astronautical Congress, at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Students from around the globe competed for the best technical paper on the theme:

Space Innovation to Reduce the Digital Divide

The workshop was chaired by Prof Chris Welch, IAF Vice-President for Education and Workforce Development, Dr. Eduardo Espadas Aldana, Director de Carrera, Ingeniería en Tecnologías Electrónicas, División de Ingeniería, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Prof. Pierre Rochus, Chair of the IAF – Space University and Administrative Committee (SUAC), Dr. Naomi Mathers^, Chair of the IAF – Space Education and Outreach Committee (SEOC), and Prof Mengu Cho, from Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT).

After the delibereation of the jury, the three winners of the competition were announced. The third prize went to Yalda Mousavinia and Rana Khalil in respect to their presentation “Open Spaceport: a Next Generation Space Mission Collaboration Platform“; the second prize was given to Juan Carlos Mariscal in respect to his paper “UNAM SPACE: Creating Mexican outer space explorers” and the first prize went to Louis Wei Yu Feng, for his presentation “Shape Memory Alloys for Space Debris Capture Applications”. The Award Ceremony was sponsored by Prof. Gengxin Xie, Chinese Center of Space Exploration Ministry of Education (COSE) and Prof. Zhou Jun, Shaanxi Engineering Laboratory for Microsatellites.