Space Settlement Design Competition: 6 teams from Lahore make it to the semis
LGS, Aitchison and Beaconhouse students among those competing.
LAHORE:
Six teams from Lahore have made it to the semifinals of the eighth Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition, which is to be held in January next year.
A total of 14 teams participated from Pakistan.
The Om Shanti Retreat Centre in Gurgaon, India, will host 10 semifinalist teams and five runners-up teams – both of which can have a maximum of 12 students each – from January 25-28.
Lahore Grammar School (LGS) 55-Main Gulberg, which won the competition last year, has qualified for the semifinals this year as well.
The other teams include Aitchison College, LGS Defence, LGS Johar Town Team A and LGS Johar Town Team B.
A team from Beaconhouse School System, Defence secured a runners-up position and will also head to India for participating in the semi-final.
Each year the students have to develop a design concept for an orbiting space settlement.
This year, they were asked to design a city in an orbit around Mercury.
The LGS (Johar Town) team leader, Zaeem Khalid said that the teams will be given a scenario a week prior to the semi-final competition to start their initial research work.
“The actual work starts when you get to interact with the rest of the teams there and work on the design proposal,” Khalid said.
Khalid also said that his team had a very good chance in the semi-finals this time. “I belive we have a strong team,” he said.
The 15 teams, once they reach India, will be combined to form five teams. Each team will be allowed as many as 40 members and will be required to engage in team building sessions before working on their design presentation. The students will get less than 24 hours to work on a slide presentation.
The teams will be allowed 35 minutes each to present their proposals, which will be followed by Q&A sessions by the judges.
The best two teams will be selected to participate in the International Space Settlement Design Competition, which will be held at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. The selected Asian teams will compete with 10 other teams from around the world in July 2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.
Six teams from Lahore have made it to the semifinals of the eighth Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition, which is to be held in January next year.
A total of 14 teams participated from Pakistan.
The Om Shanti Retreat Centre in Gurgaon, India, will host 10 semifinalist teams and five runners-up teams – both of which can have a maximum of 12 students each – from January 25-28.
Lahore Grammar School (LGS) 55-Main Gulberg, which won the competition last year, has qualified for the semifinals this year as well.
The other teams include Aitchison College, LGS Defence, LGS Johar Town Team A and LGS Johar Town Team B.
A team from Beaconhouse School System, Defence secured a runners-up position and will also head to India for participating in the semi-final.
Each year the students have to develop a design concept for an orbiting space settlement.
This year, they were asked to design a city in an orbit around Mercury.
The LGS (Johar Town) team leader, Zaeem Khalid said that the teams will be given a scenario a week prior to the semi-final competition to start their initial research work.
“The actual work starts when you get to interact with the rest of the teams there and work on the design proposal,” Khalid said.
Khalid also said that his team had a very good chance in the semi-finals this time. “I belive we have a strong team,” he said.
The 15 teams, once they reach India, will be combined to form five teams. Each team will be allowed as many as 40 members and will be required to engage in team building sessions before working on their design presentation. The students will get less than 24 hours to work on a slide presentation.
The teams will be allowed 35 minutes each to present their proposals, which will be followed by Q&A sessions by the judges.
The best two teams will be selected to participate in the International Space Settlement Design Competition, which will be held at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. The selected Asian teams will compete with 10 other teams from around the world in July 2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.