A group of 12 students from classes X to XII of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy (LSA) has won the International Space Settlement Design Competition (held in July 2023 and supported by NASA) for the fifth time.
The LSA school beat teams from the United Kingdom, United States of America, China, Uruguay, Australia, Canada, Latin America and Pakistan in the international competition.
The International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) is an annual competition founded by Anita Gale and Dick Edwards and is supported by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The competition for high school students recreates the experience of working on an aerospace company’s proposal team. The teams are asked to envision space colonies in accordance with a request for proposal (RFP).
The International Space Settlement Design Competition is now split into four rounds — the qualifying round, the Indian round followed by the Asian round and then the international finals.
The team from Lakshmipat Singhania Academy at Florida
Lakshmipat Singhania Academy has been taking part in this competition since 2012 and bagged the champions trophy in 2013 for the first time. Since then the school has won the competition in 2014, 2016, 2019 and the most recent one in July 2023 held in Florida, US.
Speaking about the students' achievement, school director Meena Kak said: “I feel extremely proud of our students as they lift the winners' trophy for the fifth time. Our students have been participating in this event for the last 11 years and every year, except for one, they reached the international level. We feel proud that our students are using analytical and research skills.”
The team members were Aryan Bajoria from Class X; Aritra Kundu, Jaagriti Sethi, Prisha Khirwal, Srikar Ayalasomayajula, Suneeti Patwari, Vidishaa Mundhra, Yutika Doogar from Class XI and Arya Agarwal, Mehak Baid, Priyanshu Sara, Vaanya Agarwal from Class XII.
Jaagriti Sethia of Class XI said that winning the competition was like a dream come true. “Winning ISSDC for me is my six-year-old dream come true. It has always been such a good experience working with different teams from different parts of the world. The past two years of ISSDC made me who I am today. I will always be grateful to sir and my team for making the stressful hours so much better just by being there.”
Kak added that the school does not take any additional help to train the students for the competition. “The students are guided by our ex-students, sometimes through video calls or in-person depending on their location. Our math teacher, Subrato Chakraborty, has also been there with the students since the very beginning. The training our students get is absolutely in-house. So that makes us all the more proud.”
The winning team from Lakshmipat Singhania Academy
Teacher Subrato Chakraborty has been mentoring students of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy since the time the school first participated in the competition. Expressing his joy for the fifth win, Chakraborty said: “Being a mentor of the team representing our school, I have taken this chance to not only show that we are capable but also to help students widen their thoughts and think out of the box. I am very grateful to the Lakshmipat Singhania Academy family, for offering me such a prestigious opportunity. Watching the students of foreign countries, I have also learnt about their thought process that is quite different from ours and there is lots to learn from them too.”
Space Settlement Design Competitions are industry simulation games for high school students, set in the future. The competitions emulate, as closely as possible, the experience of working as a member of an aerospace industry proposal team.
To help them accomplish this challenging task, each team is provided with managers from industry to serve as company CEO, then participants receive technical and management training to prepare them for the competition.
Jack Gafford, retired Boeing engineer; Anita Gale, CEO of National Space Society; Dan Hawk, principal scientist, United First Nations Planetary Defense; Robin Hawk, co-founder of Galxyz LLC and others were the judges of the event.
Only three teams were from India in the competition, including Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata.
Summing up, Chakraborty said: “The hard work and sleepless nights have paid off and we are here today, feeling proud of ourselves and grateful to those who have helped us reach the pinnacle of success. Our biggest support has been Meena Kak, our director, who has always been with us through thick and thin. Her inspirational words have pushed us two steps ahead in the challenge. School management has helped us in every possible way so that we can cross the hurdles with ease.”