The first two batches of Filipino satellite builders met virtually with the pioneering 2019 class of Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) scholars welcoming their successors in a kick-off ceremony over Zoom.
The recent series of earthquakes hitting the country has renewed anxieties about the so-called ‘Big One’. Luckily, STAMINA4Space engineers from the UP EEEI recently unveiled Diwata-2’s amateur radio unit (ARU), which can be the country’s last line of communication in the face of major disasters.
While the country relies on strong partnerships with foreign universities to launch satellites like Diwata-2, the ultimate goal has been to build them here. This 2019, a new graduate program track launched at the UP Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute aims to train our country’s future crop of satellite builders in-house. The STeP-UP program expands the Institute’s Masters in Engineering program to include a track specializing in nanosatellite engineering. The program welcomed its first batch of scholars this year, and they plan to launch two cube satellites when they graduate—this time completely made and designed in the Philippines.
