Kyutech Staff Member and 2015 Graduate of Kyutech Deliver Presentations at COPUOS in Vienna

Update:2016.07.08

Each year in June, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) of the United Nations convenes a meeting at the UN complex in Vienna in which nearly all members of COPUOS send delegates.

On June 10, 2016, two Kyutech-related talks (each 15 minutes in length) were delivered before the entire COPUOS body. The first talk was by Assistant Professor Joji Maeda and was entitled, UN/Japan Long-Term Fellowship Programme on Nano-Satellite Technologies. The second talk was by Ms. Hala Almubarak, who graduated from Kyutech in fall of 2015. Her talk was entitled, Education under the United Nations/Japan PNST program: Perspectives of a graduate. The purpose of both talks was to explain the goals and interim results of Post-graduate study on Nano-Satellite Technologies (PNST) and the Space Engineering International Course (SEIC) of Kyutech. In particular, Ms. Hala described at length her experiences at Kyutech (using an array of photos), and explained how the Kyutech education is helping her in her current job assignment in Sudan.

Ms. Hala graduated from Khartoum University in September of 2010 with a bachelor’s degree. To seek a master’s degree, she applied to PNST, which is a scholarship program jointly conducted by Kyutech and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). She was accepted under PNST, and began her studies in the fall of 2013 – and successfully completed SEIC for her master’s degree two years later. Upon return to Sudan, she was hired by the Institute of Space Research and Aerospace (ISRA), which is a government research institute. Soon, she was tapped to be Project Manager of ISRASAT-1, which would be Sudan’s first satellite if it is launched into space. This project is in progress.

It can be said that her COPUOS presentation left a deep impression on COPUOS delegates, as they could see that Kyutech and the UN are effectively conducting PNST to help developing countries train the engineers needed to create indigenous space programs in these countries.

You can download the presentations by Asst. Prof. Maeda and Ms. Hala.
http://www.unoosa.org/documents/pdf/copuos/2016/copuos2016tech08E.pdf
http://www.unoosa.org/documents/pdf/copuos/2016/copuos2016tech09E.pdf