'Sunflower 1' wins the Award of Minister of Education, Science And Technology and Cash Prize of 3 Million Won
Jung, In-ji and Moon, Ji-hwan (senior in School of Mechanical Engineering), Kim, Min-soo (senior in Department of Electronic Engineering)
[September 12, 2012]

 A YU team won the grand prize at the '1st Cansat Competition' in which students produce their own satellite to test their technical skills and problem-solving skills. They received the Award of Minister of Education, Science and Technology and cash prize of 3 million won.

 The YU YUSA Team (left to right: Moon, Ji-hwan, Jung, In-ji, Kim, Min-soo) who won the grand prize at the 1st Cansat Competition

 'Cansat' is a model satellite that is integrated within a beverage can by simplifying the constituents of satellites. A small science rocket is dropped at several hundred meters in the air using a hot-air balloon so that they can conduct their pre-planned mission like a satellite.

 This is the first competition held in the nation being co-hosted by Ministry of Education, Science And Technology(MEST) and the KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center. 90 elementary and middle school teams, 57 high school teams and 14 university teams participated in the competition. 5 teams from high school teams and 5 from college teams were selected for the finals by evaluating the planning and development of the can satellite, as well as their presentation. The finals were held at Sejong-si on the 9th of last month.

 After competing in the creativity and the result of their development using the can satellites that the students made, the final winner was the YUSA team of YU. YUSA, which was made up of seniors Jung, In-ji (25) and Moon, Ji-hwan (24) of the School of Mechanical Engineering and Kim, Min-soo (24), also a senior, of the Department of Electronic Engineering, The YUSA team was given high scores for their Cansat that successfully completed its special missions such as transmitting and receiving information on GPS locations, attitude of the satellite and earth imaging information, as well as acquiring the highest illumination measurements by measuring the luminous intensity of the sun.

 Minister of Education, Science and Technology Lee, Ju-ho gives the grand prize to the 'YUSA' team of YU at the '1st Cansat Competition' awarding ceremony at the conference room of the Seoul Central Government Complex on the morning of the 6th.

 Team leader Jung, In-ji said, "At first, we put meaning on competing in the competition based on the knowledge we learned at university, but while we prepared for the competition, we came up with new ideas and solved different problems together with our professor, gaining confidence," while adding, "In the future, I want to contribute to the development of satellites and the space industry by studying interdisciplinary fields."

 Kim, Min-soo was in charge of the circuit design and programming for the Cansat and Moon, Ji-hwan was in charge of designing and producing the parachute. "We named it 'Sunflower' so that it will always look towards the sun. I hope that more YU students will participate and make second or third Sunflower."

 Professor Lim, Byoung-duk (57, School of Mechanical Engineering), who instructed these students, stated, "I am happy that these 3 students did well for instance working very hard and conducting experiments as scheduled despite the unprecedented heat waves since May." He added, "Because students voluntarily participate in the competition, I will continue to help students if students interested in satellites participate in this competition."

 Meanwhile, the awards ceremony was held in the MEST conference room at the Seoul Central Government Complex with the attendance of about 50 people including the Minister of Education, Science And Technology, director of the KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center, Competition officials, and parents of awarded students.