User talk:Rstewartperry

The Space Science Engineering Foundation (SSEF) is a UK full charity (registered charity number 1142329) that sponsors the UK Space Design Challenge (UKSDC) and the EU Space Design Challenge (EUSDC) for 15 to 18 year olds and Galactic Challenge (GC) for 10 to 14 year olds. The GCs are run throughout the year at schools in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Space Design Challenges are a science and engineering challenge designed as a simulation of life in industry. Students form a company that they run through their own management and engineering team. The Foundation Society based 60 years in the future request a design proposal (RFP) with specific parameters for a settlement in space or on a planetary body. The individual companies are made up of an elected president, vice president of marketing and heads of engineering in four areas; Operations, Human, Structural and Automation. The company’s product is a slide show presentation up to fifty slides. Companies produce the detailed design, which they then present to a panel of judges who include experts in the field including representatives of the UK Space Agency. Professional engineers and scientists assist the students, however the running of the company and the designs are the student’s own work. The UKSDC runs regional challenges throughout the United Kingdom in the late fall. The regional competitions are held on a Saturday. One company present the best proposal to judges and proceeds to the UK National Finals held at Imperial College London in mid March each year where the students form 5 companies of approximately 45 students each. Approximately 180 students proceed to the national finals from the regional heats and 50 from video entries. The finals competition is held on a weekend starting Saturday morning and finishing Sunday late afternoon. The winning company of students then selects 12 students, through a complicated algorithm combined with voting, and 3 reserves to represent their company and proceed to the International Competition, (ISSDC) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center the following summer, near the end of July. The ISSDC is similar to the UK finals, except that it starts on a Friday evening and the presentations are judged on Monday. The EU team is run the same as the UK and 12 students are also sent to the international finals in Florida. The video competition is held near the end of the year with entries accepted in January. Similar to all the challenges, the video has a RFP. However, the students make a 3-minute video entry answering the RFP. Video Challenges allow students that are unable to attend a regional a chance to gain entry to the UK National Finals. The SSEF also sponsors the EU space Design Challenges. Students are welcome to enter from anywhere in Europe, including the UK. The winning company of 45 students selects 12 students to proceed to the International Competition at Kennedy Space Center just as in the UKSDC. They travel together with the UK students. Galactic Challenges(GC)are run in conjunction with schools in two levels, years 5-8 and 9-10. Galactic Challenges range in size from 24 to 100 students. They are similar to the regional challenges in that students are organized into student lead companies. They are held on a day selected by schools and the GC representatives. While the SDC’s are completely student lead, the GC students have more interaction with expert mentors and are of a shorter duration. The students nevertheless present to judges in front of all students and differing from the SDC challenges, parents and friends are invited for the presentations and judging making for a very large audience. Other ‘Educational’ competitions are run at schools with the help of the SSEF and UKSDC to help promote science, engineering and space sciences in schools.

Rstewartperry (talk) 03:56, 12 August 2017 (UTC)Bold text