[SatNews]…the Company issued three one-time $2,500 SSPI International Scholarships for students with demonstrated interest in careers in Satellite.
The Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) has awarded three scholarships for students pursuing studies related to the satellite industry. SSPI’s goal in issuing scholarships to outstanding students each year is to expand their interest in and contact with the global satellite industry. This year, SSPI issued three one-time $2,500 SSPI International Scholarships for students with demonstrated interest in careers in Satellite.
"Higher education comes at an increasing cost each year in most countries—even ones where a basic undergraduate education is very inexpensive.” said SSPI Executive Director Robert Bell. “This is especially true for the advanced studies necessary to many careers in satellite. As one part of our Next Generation program, SSPI is glad to assist some of the world's most talented young people to gain access to the knowledge and skills they need."
The SSPI 2014 Scholarship Recipients:
Natalia Larrea Brito
Natalia Larrea Brito is a Spanish national—the first to participate in the NASA Academy program, having been sponsored by the European Space Agency. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Aerospace Engineering at McGill University in Canada. She is multilingual—speaking her own native Spanish, but fluent in English, with an Intermediate level of French and basic level of German. Her project with the 2013 NASA Ames Academy for Space Exploration, called "Mars-NeXTs: A Novel Approach for Mars Exploration Using a Network of Quadrotor Tailsitters," had aerial vehicles which perform focused investigations near or on the surface of Mars and then return to ground stations to download their data for transmission back to earth. Natalia's scholarship will help fund her attendance in the Space Studies program of the International Space University (ISU).
Paola Libraro
Paola Libraro is a 5th year PhD student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. She is working on the design of next generation all-electric telecommunication satellites, with funding from a research grant funded by SES. Arriving in the U.S. with a Masters of Science in Astrophysics from the University of Bologna (Italy), Paola took on the challenge of catching herself up with undergraduate level courses in mechanical and aerospace engineering, in order to further her studies along the engineering, as opposed to Astrophysics track. She did this while simultaneously beginning her PhD. She was a participant in the Caltech Space Challenge where, in 2011, her team won the space system design competition.
Adrienne Rector
Adrienne Rector, a second time scholarship winner for SSPI, is a senior at Embry-Riddle University in Prescott, Arizona. Although she has enjoyed an interest in space-faring technologies since her high school days studying rocketry, her current passion is Space Mechanics, and she hopes to focus her studies on Space Systems and Experimental Space Systems. She hopes eventually to study at an international university to gain a broader perspective on the industry. Her sample work, T3R: Rubidium Clock Measurement and Calibration Adjustment, is a graphical user interface for a program that finds the azimuth and elevation to desired target bodies in space, and plots their ground track on a map. The interface was so successful, her advising professor has begun work to convert the results into an app for smartphones.
SSPI promotes the growth of the satellite industry by educating current and potential end-users and the general public about the indispensable contributions of satellites to business, government and human welfare, and by connecting satellite professionals worldwide through education, knowledge-sharing and fostering professional relationships. In carrying out this mission, SSPI provides an on-ramp for students looking to start careers in the satellite business, educates today’s and tomorrow’s customers on the enormous and unique value of satellite technology, and promotes excellence and innovation among satellite professionals and the companies they work for, ensuring that our industry stays strong.
