We didn't win the competition but we did get our poster published in the proceedings! In general, it was awesome to get to hear about the current research efforts and the recent technological developments in the industry from professionals and experts across the country. I had a fun time chatting with those from other universities, labs, and perusing the booths of some of the cool private companies that flew in to showcase their products! This conference overall was a blast, and I can't wait for more experiences like it!
This coil was quite the ordeal to set up, move, and store due to its sheer size. I'll also add that wrapping 8 pounds of wire just to realize it had shorted somewhere along the way truly inspired some character development (and remains a reminder of the value in proper planning and engineering foresight)! During its construction, we also got featured by our school's news and got to take some cool photos! See the article written about our work in the club here!
Here's the rotator in action! I needed to properly connect the controller and rotator using an 8-conductor cable and then determine a way to control the controller from a laptop. I found a GitHub repository that helped us interface between GPredict and the controller. eventually, the rotator could be successfully controlled via 2 sockets (1 for azimuth control and 1 for elevation) of a laptop!
I ended up cracking open our rotator controller out of curiosity to find this diamond mine!
This event offered valuable insights into best practices and systems engineering principles essential for successful satellite missions and it was an honor to be able to partake in it and receive feedback and guidance from university PI, industry professionals, and other experts.