Indian students rank first in aerospace competition

It was a glorious moment for India when Astral, the Indian team that participated in CanSat – a global aerospace competition – secured the first rank after defeating 39 teams from across the world. The students belong to Uttarakhand's University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES). They included students of Aerospace Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Material Science Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Engineering and design studies. Professors Ugur Guven and Zozimus Labana guided the winning team. Guven said that the team’s success will prepare them for their role when they will join the booming aerospace sector. CanSat which is held in Texas every year is organized by American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). It is a design-build-fly competition with space related themes. The competition brings out the students’ analytical, creative, decision-making, problem-solving and collaborative skills in addition to their domain knowledge and expertise. The contestants will also have to make use of and exhibit unique skills from different disciplines which will help to enhance their multi-disciplinal skills.  Numerous prestigious institutions like Princeton University, University of Manchester, University of Alabama, VIT University and National Aviation Academy had participated in CanSat 2017.