One hundred students take part in the Catalan final of #CanSat, organised by UPC in collaboration with IEEC

The School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is organising the qualifying phase in Catalonia of this competition, promoted every year throughout Europe by the European Space Education Office (ESERO) of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The initiative, which aims to foster vocations for space, technology and STEM disciplines among young people, is to design, build and launch small satellites, of the size of a soft drink can. These devices will be launched on Saturday at 11 am, 12:30 pm and 2 pm, aboard rockets designed by students of the ESEIAAT-UPC Cosmic Research association.

The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya — IEEC) is collaborating in the organisation of this second edition of CanSat in Catalonia, together with the Department of Digital Policies and Public Administrations and the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the i2CAT Foundation, the City Council of Òdena, the City Council of Igualada, and the Igualada-Òdena Aerodrome Management Consortium.

This year’s edition has exceeded all expectations, with the registration of 50 high school teams from all over Catalonia, of which only 18 teams have been selected to take off their small satellites. These teams are made up of secondary school, high school and FP students from 16 centres, supervised by their teachers.