PUA’s Faculty of Engineering has always been keen on involving its students in local, regional and international scientific competitions. Accordingly, a team from the Mechanical Engineering Department qualified for an international competition announced by the Beijing Institute of Technology in cooperation with the China Electronics Institute and the Chinese Society of Astronautics. The competition was sponsored by the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA).
This competition is concerned with space science and technology for the design and production of components and devices that could be operated in CNSA. It is divided into two sections; the first, which is entitled “Creative Design”, involves the design of a space product that serve as a lab sample. The second, however; which is entitled “Innovative Design”, involves the design of a complete space end product, which is valid for actual use.
PUA managed to participate in the first section of the competition, which deals with “creative design“. PUA’s team designed an outer body for nanosatellite from composite materials.
It is worth noting that the charts of the participating team were sent to the competition organizer for arbitration. More than 100 research and scientific bodies from more than 30 countries worldwide competed. Later, the jury announced that PUA Engineering team qualified for the finals along with 15 research teams from China, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, and Egypt.
By successfully qualifying for the competition, PUA becomes the only Egyptian and Arab university in the Middle East to qualify for the finals. Further, it came in the seventh place among the 30 qualified teams. It is also worth noting that the five competing countries that qualified for the finals with Egypt are among those countries with a long history in space research.
PUA’s team consisted of 3 faculty members and 7 students from different academic years in the Mechanical Engineering Department. The 3 supervising faculty members were:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Anwar, Dr. Nabil Rashwan, Dr. Noha Aladdin
While the 7 students were:
Aya Saad, Abdul Rahman Yasser, Ahmed Shoukry, Mona Wafiq, Irene Mossad, Ahmed Saeed, and Ahmed Al-Masry.
The design proposed by the team deals with the design of the outer body for a nanosatellites (CubeSat). In addition to load calculation, material design and testing, thermal load control, and variable mechanical load calculations (vibration analysis).
Contest link:
http://isssp.bit.edu.cn/en/n12/
The link for the qualification of the team of PUA’s Faculty of Engineering, and winning seventh among 15 participating teams: