Across Europe, there is a shortage of engineers – a situation that is predicted to get worse by the end of the decade. At Starion, we recognise that industry has a role to play in encouraging more young people to study engineering and pursue it as a career. Our teams therefore support a wide range of activities to boost engineering education, including sponsorship, hands-on experience with real-life tools and projects, and training by qualified engineers.
Here, Sam Gerené, Starion Competence Area Lead Concurrent Design and MBSE, outlines three of the ways Starion is contributing to engineering education in model-based system engineering (MBSE) and concurrent design.
Why we support education projects
Over the last few years, businesses have been reporting increasing challenges in recruiting engineers and ICT specialists. The European Commission says the European Union needs an additional 2 million professionals in science and engineering.
Our view is that gaining experience in real-life engineering activities, interacting with practicing engineers and using the same tools as industry can all help to demonstrate to students how exciting and rewarding an engineering career can be. These experiences also benefit them when seeking full-time engineering positions after they graduate.
In the Netherlands – the NEBULA-Xplorer satellite project
One of the most exciting projects we’re supporting is the Netherlands Educational Small-sat for Exploring Binary-Linked Astrophysics – X-ray Observer, otherwise known as NEBULA-Xplorer. This is a small science satellite being designed by students to carry out long-term X-ray observations of a type of binary star system where one is a black hole and the other is a donor star – a state where the physics can’t yet be explained.
Both the satellite, which will be controlled by Space Research Organisation Netherlands (SRON) in Leiden, and its instrument are being built by university students, who are receiving coaching from educational institutions, the Dutch space industry and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research. Once a fortnight on a Friday afternoon, I teach the students concurrent design and collaborative MBSE using CDP4-COMET to support them in designing the spacecraft. This not only provides them with a specific competence for this particular project but also skills and experience that they can carry forward into a working environment after they graduate.
The ultimate aim is that Nebula-Xplorer becomes a European Space Agency mini-Fast (ESA mini-F) mission, which would be an exciting result for all the students who are taking part!
In Switzerland – hands-on teaching with CDP4-COMET
We regularly invite student interns to join our MBSE and concurrent design team, giving them the opportunity to work on real-life projects and gain experience of working in an international engineering company.
One of our former interns, Marnix Verkammen, who was a Master’s student at TU Delft in the Netherlands, now works at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a public research university in Switzerland. There, one of his roles is organising the Minor in Space Technologies at Master’s level. Within this stream, students learn about the concurrent design methodology and apply it to the design of a space mission using Starion’s CDP4-COMET software.
CDP4-COMET was originally used at the EPFL Space Center as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) Concurrent Engineering Challenge. EPFL has continued to use it because it’s now the default at ESA’s concurrent design facility and widely used elsewhere in industry.
We’ve supported Marnix and his colleagues with updates to the latest version of CDP4-COMET because we see this as a worthwhile investment in a future generation of engineers, just like our internship programme that Marnix took part in.
Marnix reports that: “It’s good for students to use an industry-standard tool and I know they learn a lot through this course. One of our focus areas at EFPL is space sustainability, so we added this as a domain of expertise to CDP4-COMET in addition to the traditional ones like propulsion and thermal engineering. Also, we’re using the CDP4-COMET Web app for the first time this year. We’ve found it really useful to incentivise the different ‘domain of expertise’ groups because they can clearly visualise what has been published and what’s missing. It’s also a useful tool for us to do the students’ assessments after the course.”
Looking back at his time with Starion, Marnix told me: “My internship opened my eyes to the concurrent engineering way of designing a space mission, or indeed any other engineering project. It also showed me what CDP4-COMET could do, how useful it is and how it’s different from other tools, including the option to use it as the hub in a hub-and-spoke system. I see the students here having the same experience in both respects through this course.”
In Spain – learning from a concurrent design expert
In Spain, in response to a lack of space engineers, an educational facility called Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Aeroespaciales y de Ingenieros Técnicos Aeronáuticos de España (COITAE; College of Aerospace Engineers) is setting up a programme called Master X, which includes a Master’s course that will focus solely on space engineering. This will give an overview of spacecraft design including all the subsystems and elements that need to be considered, and will be open to both junior engineers and more experienced professionals who want deeper knowledge in this area.
One of our Madrid-based team, Belén González Rodríguez, will be teaching a module on concurrent design for this Master’s degree from September. This will include the theory and practical hands-on sessions to give them a full spectrum of knowledge on this aspect of spacecraft design.
Belen points out that learning about concurrent design gives students a holistic view of a spacecraft, which is what companies are looking for: “If you understand how all the subsystems interact, you will be able to understand, describe and solve technical problems from every point of view.” In addition, being taught by someone who works on concurrent design projects for space agencies, defence organisations and other critical infrastructure organisations means they are learning from someone with real-world experience.
Find out more
If you’d like to learn about concurrent design and CDP4-COMET, we have a wealth of content on the Starion website:
- Concurrent design and collaborative engineering blog posts
- MBSE blog posts
- Information about our CDP4-COMET solution.
Or contact us to discuss how we can work together on concurrent design projects.
