Students to gather at UAH to show off space designs | Events

More than 300 students will be on the campus of The University of Alabama in Huntsville this week to show off their best designs of spacecraft on a science mission to Mercury.

The Integrated Product Team (IPT) open house is scheduled on Wednesday from 1 p.m to 5 p.m. in Spragins Hall.

The (IPT) course is a unique engineering senior design experience that engages UAHuntsville seniors in mechanical and aerospace engineering and industrial engineering as well as undergraduates in the design of a spacecraft to accomplish a science mission to Mercury. The College of Charleston and ESTACA (Ecole Supérieure des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Automobile in Paris, France) are also participants.

The college portion of the program consists of about 80 students from the three institutions that have been divided into four teams. These teams are in competition to be selected as the best design. The College of Charleston students serve as the science principal investigators who define the science objectives for the mission.

The UAHuntsville students serve as the primary engineering team and design the spacecraft that will accomplish the science objectives, while the ESTACA students are responsible for designing an element of the system. This year that is the cruise element.

The Innovative System Project for the Increased Recruitment of Emerging STEM Students (InSPIRESS) is the high school component of this program, which this semester involves 30 teams from 12 high schools and 240 students. These teams were tasked with designing a science payload to be included in the spacecraft designed by the UAHuntsville students.

Participating high schools include: Sparkman, Bob Jones, Scottsboro, West Point, Cold Springs, Good Hope, Da Vinci School for Arts and Sciences (El Paso, Texas), Albertville, Austin and Lee High Schools.

The purpose of the IPT/InSPIRESS open house is for the participants to see the scope of the program and to show their work to the community. In discussions with the teachers and students participating in the program - several high school students have decided to major in science and engineering as a result of the InSPIRESS project.

Information from UAH Press Release.