Space Educational Activities showcased at the 2nd SSEA Symposium
Last week the 2nd Symposium on Space Educational Activities took place at the Budapest University of Economics and Technology (BME) in Budapest, Hungary.
Over 200 participants travelled to Budapest to attend this exciting event, and see over 40 oral presentations and 37 posters as well as attend networking events and exchange ideas. Attendees presented and discussed current space educational activities and programmes, including the suite of activities offered by ESA’s Education Office, as well presenting results of experiments and experiences within these stimulating educational programmes. Around half the attendees were students, and over-all they represented 22 countries from around the world.
The opening ceremony of the event was held in the prestigious main building of BME with a view over the river Danube. Opening addresses were given by a number of prestigious guests including ESA astronaut Reinhold Ewald, BME University Rector Professor János Józsa, ESA’s Chief Strategy Officer Kai-Uwe Schrogl, András Pócza from the Hungarian Ministry of National Development and János Solymosi, President of the Hungarian Astronautical Society.
During the conference attendees also had the chance to visit an exhibition area, featuring stands from various space organisations. The ESA Education Office’s stand featured real experiments, as flown on the BEXUS platform and tested in the drop tower as part of the Drop your Thesis programmes.
The final day of the conference saw a dedicated session, specifically focusing on the Education Office’s small satellite, ESEO (European Student Earth Orbiter), which brought together many students and representatives from the Universities and organisations working on the final assembly integration and testing of this exciting endeavour.
On Friday afternoon an additional presentation was given by ESA’s HR department on the career opportunities within ESA for students and young professionals, before the closing ceremony and the presentation of the best paper awards.
Evening events were also organised as part of the symposium, and attendees had the chance to mix and meet with one another during a welcome reception on the first day of the symposium, to jointly celebrate a special Yuri’s night event on Thursday, and finally to enjoy an unforgettable gala dinner cruise on the river Danube as final closing event on Friday evening.
The ESA Education Office selected BME as the host and organiser of the event, participated in the organising and technical committees, and contributed to the funding, along with other sponsors.
The proceedings of the Symposium will be published by BME.
The ESA Education Office intends to begin the process for selecting the host and organiser for the 3rd Symposium soon!
