Challenges and Opportunities of UNISEC-Global

Paper number

IAC-14,E1,5,10,x23920

Author

Ms. Rei Kawashima, UNISEC-Global, Japan

Coauthor

Prof. Mengu Cho, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

Coauthor

Prof.Dr. Mohammed Khalil Ibrahim, Cairo University, Egypt

Year

2014

Abstract

University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC) has dedicated to practical space engineering education at university level since 2002 in Japan. With “VISION 2020-100,” which is described as “By the end of 2020, let’s create a world where university students can participate in practical space projects in more than 100 countries,” UNISEC has spread the activities to the rest of world through international programs such as CanSat Leader Training Program (CLTP) and Mission Idea Contest for Micro/Nano Satellite Utilization (MIC) since 2010. 10 years experiences of managing UNISEC in Japan was long enough to build a hypothesis that forming a consortium of universities could be effective for space education at university level. UNISEC provided university students with the opportunities to see what other university achieved and how they did. It leads to strong motivation, hints to achieve something and rivalry feeling. Also, highly motivated leading persons such as professors continually have considered what they can do without enough budgets.
Thus, forming a UNISEC local chapter in each region/country and establish UNISEC-Global for supporting the local chapters were proposed. In 2013, establishment of the UNISEC-Global has been declared in the 1st UNISEC Global Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan. 
If university students could participate in practical space projects in more than 100 countries, what the future would be like? We may be able to see the answer in the real world through UNISEC-Global activities soon. 
Currently, there are Points of contact in 30 regions, namely, South Africa region, Angola, Namibia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Australia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, USA, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bulgaria, Italy, Samara (Russia), Switzerland, Germany and Japan. 
In this paper, firstly, brief history of UNISEC and the international programs will be introduced as well as the result of the 1st UNISEC Global Meeting. Secondly, the vision, mission, structure, implementation plan of UNISEC-Global will be described. Thirdly, the roles and merits of UNISEC local chapter and UNISEC-Global will be presented.  Finally, challenges and opportunities of UNISEC-Global will be discussed.

Abstract document

IAC-14,E1,5,10,x23920.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-14,E1,5,10,x23920.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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