On April 5th, the closing ceremony of the SUSU Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School 2024 took place at the SUSU Indoor Athletic Stadium. At our university, schoolchildren presented unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of their own design, among which the jury selected the best ones.
SUSU Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School, organized at the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology, and Rocket and Space Technology Education Centre named after V.P. Makeyev, has been promoting youth interest in scientific activities in aerospace engineering for six years now. Once a year, the university's Aerospace Engineering School recruits students from the 8th-11th forms in schools. Within our university, future applicants become acquainted with the physical fundamentals of flight and their power supply units, study modelling programs in aircraft engineering and learn to design a full-fledged aircraft.
For each new enrolment, students of the Asteroid Design Bureau of the SUSU Aerospace Engineering Department develop a unique technical assignment for schoolchildren. Previously, the guys here assembled, for example, a support for a module for landing on an asteroid, built a rocket with a prototype engine, and this year the young engineers have had a task of developing an unmanned aerial vehicle that meets a number of requirements.
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"With each new enrolment at the Aerospace Engineering School, the technical task becomes more complicated," comments Olga Boyko, the organizer of the Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School, leading specialist in additional education for aerospace enterprises at the SUSU Aerospace Technologies Scientific and Educational Centre. "This year, schoolchildren have assembled a remote-controlled aircraft that performed simple aerobatic manoeuvres indoors. The task was not an easy one − such a drone must have control surfaces, its maximum take-off weight should not exceed 0.5 kg, flight altitude − no more than 8 meters, range − no more than 70 meters, and a box with electronics must be placed in the aircraft. There are also other requirements."
The Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice School 2024 entitled "Dream Higher!" lasted from February 16th to April 5th. 35 schoolchildren from Chelyabinsk were selected for participation. The guys were divided into five groups. Over two months, they not only learned everything from "Fundamentals of Aerodynamics" to "Theory and Calculations of a Launcher" (lectures were given by teachers, employees of scientific laboratories, graduate students and senior students of SUSU), but also, working in teams, assembled seven models of UAV aircraft type with approved electronics. At all stages of development (from drawing calculations to the launch of ready-made devices) schoolchildren were advised by junior (1st- and 2nd-year aerospace engineering students at SUSU) and senior (3rd- to 5th-year students) curators.
Since the school is based on an economic strategy, the winner is the team that fulfils the technical requirements for the device and spends less resources on its development.
By April, the teams have completed all the main work on assembling the drones, tested them in flight and finalized them with the project curators in order to present their developments to the jury at the final tests at the SUSU Indoor Athletic Stadium.
During the presentation of each drone, the jury (independent experts from the Aerospace Engineering Department of the university and employees of the House for Youth Engineering Creativity State Budgetary Educational Institution) assessed its appearance and correctness of layout, accuracy of calculation of launcher settings, aerodynamic qualities of the aircraft, description of design solutions and their justification, and also the development of the 3D model and the contribution of each team member. After the final testing of aircraft models, the ceremonial closing of the Aerospace Engineering Science-to-Practice Winter School 2024 took place with the awarding of cups, medals and certificates to the winners and participants of the project.
"The Aerospace Engineering School gave us all enormous experience, not only in calculations and development of our own aircraft, but also in working with various technical programs," says 10th-form student Aleksey Artemyev. "The most interesting thing about this school was the launches of the devices themselves. We did not know in advance what trajectory our drone would take, but could only guess, since we only had initial calculations and no final ones. But we were lucky − after some modifications the devices flew."
While studying at the SUSU Aerospace Engineering School, the schoolchildren try their hand at designing and constructing, and if they are especially interested in this field of study, they can enter the Aerospace Engineering Department at South Ural State University with advantage.
Students of the 8th-11th forms and various technical clubs in Chelyabinsk can become participants in the university Aerospace Engineering School. Information about the new enrolment for the educational program can be obtained on the school website https://akt.susu.ru/aero_school, in specialized schools and lyceums of our city, in the Quantorium children's technology park, and in the Sirius Educational Centre.