"Space Innovation for All"
January 17-21, 2013
Colorado School of Mines
Denver, Colorado
Welcome to STS-2013, the space technology working meeting of the National Society of Black Engineers! Named in honor of the the Space Shuttle program, STS-2013 is a bi-annual working session and ski outing intended to help advance the primary space technology projects of the NSBE Space Special Interest Group and partnered Alumni Extension chapters, particularly the Houston Space Chapter, based at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The debut Space Technology Session was held in January 2011 at the Colorado School of Mines, just outside Denver. This gathering of Black space industry professionals is a first of its kind meeting for NSBE and is a trailblazer in advancing NSBE's ability to serve as a focusing point to harness the intellectual capacity and experience base of its membership and partners. STS-2013 also advances a unique capability of NSBE. Select college students will be invited to attend STS-2013 and will work alongside some of the nation's leading rocket scientists to solve challenging engineering problems and develop new spacecraft architectures. This not only helps motivate young students to succeed in their matriculation, but also harnesses the energy and creativity of youth to enable NSBE Space to pursue innovations that may not have been fully pursued by government agencies or commerical industry.
The Space Technology Session is scheduled to occur over the MLK holiday because it represents the fulfillment of a directive given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with respect to our industry. At the 2010 NSBE Aerospace Systems Conference, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols served as emcee for the Celestial Torch Awards Banquet and she spoke about how she had once considered quitting the cast. When Dr. King heard, adamantly told her that she could not quit. He saw her character as an indispensible role model - essentially she was a living metaphor for what he was trying to achieve. The Space Technology Session comes full circle, demonstrating a body of African American space scientists and engineers living the real life equivalent of the role he admonished Nichelle to continue to portray. Each Space Technology Session serves as a living tribute to Dr. King and we invite you to take part.
What does STS-2013 do for you?
This meeting gives you the opportunity to do something as/more technical than your job, something that you have a personal or technical interest in.
STS-2013 introduces and matures several types of skunkworks-like activities that can be developed in the Space SIG. These activities give us an opportunity to look into new areas that may tie into some of the national decision making in progress. It further gives companies, agencies, and individual space professionals the ability to step out and partner with NSBE Space and take ideas back to their home organizations. One of our key values is the manner in which STS-2013 promotes collaboration among attendees from across Agencies such as NASA and the FAA and the host of aerospace companies across the country, bypassing institutional stovepiping.
STS-2013 helps African American attendees to more closely network, creating opportunities to target proposals from NASA, NSF, NOAA, etc. for future work. These agencies often call for inter-agency collaboration and many of us have never collaborated with another NSBE member on a technical proposal, yet look forward to such an opportunity. In today's climate, proposals are very attractive options for funding work because when facing constrained Agency or corporate budgets, they represent an opportunity to create more work (or more interesting work) and be able to participate with fewer concerns about whether your project funding will be cut.
Finally, STS-2013 gives you the opportunity to be a co-author in a publication. We are encouraging all participants to help prepare technical papers related to their project for publication at the 2014 NSBE Aerospace Systems Conference and other industry conferences and journals. We are passionate about increasing the number of technical publications authored by African American engineers and provide STS-2013 as the platform to create intellectual capital for publication.
Prepare to be intrigued, challenged, and amazed through the rich diversity of talent and experience that will be gathered by the Space SIG. Partnering companies have the opportunity to leverage technical data generated by this conference and work alongside NSBE Space as we literally engineer new gateways to success on individual, agency/corporate, and ultimately global levels.
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Note: Some STS-2011 participants preferred to split the cost of the hotel room by sharing a room with another participant. For those interested in doing the same at STS-2013, we are compiling a list of interested persons to help you get in contact with one another. If you already have a roommate or are not interested, you do not need to click on this link. However if interested, please complete the STS-2013 Hotel Room Sharing Request.
STS-2013 is organized by the NSBE Houston Space Chapter on behalf of the NSBE Space Special Interest Group.
Last Updated on Thursday, 20 December 2012 17:53
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