SpaceBoard—Empowering Space Academia

Paper number

IAC-16,E1,5,6,x34414

Coauthor

Mr. Maxime Sixdeniers, SpaceBoard, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Artur Gasparyan, SpaceBoard, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Alexander Schilling, SpaceBoard, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Stefan Vogel, SpaceBoard, France

Coauthor

Ms. Vanessa Pepe, SpaceBoard, United Kingdom

Coauthor

Mr. Shivaprakash Muruganandham, SpaceBoard, Czech Republic

Coauthor

Ms. Garima Pandey, SpaceBoard, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Michael Vogel, SpaceBoard, France

Year

2016

Abstract

Thanks to the opening of new markets and the increasingly important role played by non-governmental actors, the space sector is undergoing both significant change and rapid growth. The space workforce is thus poised to expand steadily in the years to come. The quality of education and training given to tomorrow’s space engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, legal experts or decision-makers will have a vital impact on advances in space science and technology in the decades ahead.

For this reason, the niche professional network that SpaceBoard is building for the space sector will be largely devoted to space education. By means of a unified platform open to all space players, individuals and organisations, SpaceBoard aims to make space academia readily accessible to all interested parties. 

SpaceBoard’s platform will provide a comprehensive overview of institutions offering space courses worldwide, thus encouraging prospective students to pursue space-related studies. Students will be able to consult universities and space study programmes for detailed information on course content and scholarships, as well as to learn about graduation opportunities, be reminded about application deadlines or post questions of specific interest to them. Respondents will be current or former students as well as official representatives of universities and study programmes. Alumni will be able to leverage their education by promoting their course of study, giving insights to future students or joining alumni networks on the platform. 

SpaceBoard’s legacy platform (2013-15) allowed for interactions between prospective students and alumni of the Erasmus+ SpaceMaster programme focusing on space science and technology. Despite its limited features, the legacy platform enabled a large number of prospective students to obtain useful information from alumni on particular lectures, scholarship sources or the difficulty for international students to find a job in the European space industry after graduation. Interviews with alumni pursuing different career paths shed light on the various possibilities open to graduates of the SpaceMaster programme, and provided pertinent information to matriculated students concerning the state of the space industry today. 

Capitalising on this success and on the positive feedback received from users and official SpaceMaster representatives, we are transitioning the legacy platform to a new online environment. SpaceBoard is launching a user-friendly interactive platform built from scratch to give prospective and current students and alumni access to tools that will help them find the right academic opportunities or leverage their degrees.

Abstract document

IAC-16,E1,5,6,x34414.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-16,E1,5,6,x34414.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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