Space Universities Network - supporting Space Science and Engineering Higher Education Community in the UK

The world space economy is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2030 and to provide 100,000 jobs. In the UK we currently have 38,500 directly employed with a further 70000 jobs dependent on the space sector. By 2030 the UK aims to have a further 100,000 new people employed within the sector. Training space engineers and scientists is critical to fulfilling this need. The UK-based “Space Universities Network” (SUN) was formed in 2016 with the aim of enhancing the quality of learning and teaching by providing support and resources to the Space science and engineering higher education community. SUN’s objectives are to facilitate the creation of a skilled workforce of graduates who can meet the challenges of future scientific and commercial exploitation of space. The network addresses this need by helping to inspire students to join the space sector and ensuring they are well equipped at University to contribute. SUN enables the developing, sharing and promotion of effective practice and innovation in the delivery of university-level space science and engineering curricula. It does this through workshops, offering opportunities for networking to support the space teaching community and a web-based repository of resources. This paper describes the process that led to the foundation of SUN, its objectives, modes of operation, prime activities, evaluation and future projects. Once firmly established, it is hoped to expand the network through partnerships with similar organisations in other countries

Peer assessing individual contributions in a group project

Graduates are expected to have good academic knowledge but also the professional skills required in the workplace. One such ‘soft’ skill is the ability to give constructive criticism and provide meaningful but professional feedback. This is particularly relevant when working in a team within industry, where peers need to influence each other to improve their project outcomes and chances of success. The development of student’s skills to generate such feedback should be supported within higher education. Specifically the IPAC Consortium investigates the use of Individual Peer Assessed Contribution to group work. In this context, students create an output directed to their own peers (i.e. a form of external-facing assessment), and prepares students for similar practices in industry. This paper, linked to the roundtable session on external-facing assessments proposed by Grindle and Tong, investigates staff and student perceptions on such practice. Insights gained to this date are presented

An instrument for in situ comet nucleus surface density profile measurement by gamma ray attenuation

The MUPUS experiment on the Rosetta Lander will measure thermal and mechanical properties as well as the bulk density of the cometary material at and just below the surface of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen. A profile of bulk density vs. depth will be obtained by measuring the attenuation of 662 keV gamma rays emitted by a 137Cs source. Compton scattering is the dominant interaction process at this energy, the attenuation depending directly on the total number of electrons along the source–detector path. This in turn is approximately proportional to the column density. We report here on the design of the bulk density instrument and the results of related Monte Carlo simulations, laboratory tests and calculations of the instrument's performance. The 137Cs radioisotope source is mounted in the tip of the MUPUS thermal probe—a 10 mm diameter rod, to be hammered into the surface of the nucleus to a depth of 370 mm. Two cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors mounted at the top of the probe will monitor the count rate of 662 keV photons. Due to the statistics of photon counting, the integration time required to measure column density to a particular accuracy varies with depth as well as with bulk density. The required integration time is minimised for a material thickness equal to twice the exponential attenuation length. At shallower depths the required time rises due to the smaller fractional change in count rate with varying depth, while at greater depths the reduced count rate demands longer integration times. The former effect and the fact that the first 45 mm of the source–detector path passes not through the comet but through the material of the probe, mean that the first density measurement cannot be made until the source has reached a depth of perhaps 100 mm. The laboratory experiments indicate that at this depth an integration time no less than 348 s (falling to 93.9 s at full penetration) would be required to measure a bulk density of 1000 kgm−3 to 5% accuracy, assuming a source activity of 1.48 mCi (decayed from an initial 2 mCi). Although solutions involving feedback of the measured bulk density into a time-budgeting algorithm are conceivable, a simple approach where equal time is spent per unit depth may be best, providing an accuracy in bulk density of around 5–20%, for 25 mm slices and the expected range of parameters

Individual peer assessment of contribution to group work (IPAC): Key points and recommendations

Individual Peer Assessment of Contribution to group work (IPAC) has been widely reported in the literature as successfully addressing problems that arise when students are asked to perform group work, such as complaints of ‘passengers’, and staff and student concerns about fairness of the marks. However, there are multiple variations on how to implement it, which makes it difficult for current and potential users to have an in-depth view and understanding of this assessment method or what works best. A working group was created at University College London (UCL) to look into this methodology (IPAC Consortium). This paper reports the key points of the IPAC methodology, as well as guidelines and recommendations for practice, e.g. make it more useful for students by sharing the feedback. These are informed in the review of relevant literature, discussion with academics and educators, and own experience. We also introduce the software that is currently in use at UCL to implement this practice easily and time efficiently. This is of interest to anyone organizing and running assessed student group work activities, and that is using or might want to use in the future the IPAC methodology

Space Universities Network - Supporting space science and engineering higher education community in the UK

The world space economy is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2030 and to provide 100,000 jobs. In the UK we currently have 38,500 directly employed with a further 70000 jobs dependent on the space sector. By 2030 the UK aims to have a further 100,000 new people employed within the sector. Training space engineers and scientists is critical to fulfilling this need. The UK-based “Space Universities Network” (SUN) was formed in 2016 with the aim of enhancing the quality of learning and teaching by providing support and resources to the Space science and engineering higher education community. SUN’s objectives are to facilitate the creation of a skilled workforce of graduates who can meet the challenges of future scientific and commercial exploitation of space. The network addresses this need by helping to inspire students to join the space sector and ensuring they are well equipped at University to contribute. SUN enables the developing, sharing and promotion of effective practice and innovation in the delivery of university-level space science and engineering curricula. It does this through workshops, offering opportunities for networking to support the space teaching community and a web-based repository of resources. This paper describes the process that led to the foundation of SUN, its objectives, modes of operation, prime activities, evaluation and future projects. Once firmly established, it is hoped to expand the network through partnerships with similar organisations in other countries

Space Universities Network - Supporting space science and engineering higher education community in the UK

The world space economy is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2030 and to provide 100,000 jobs. In the UK we currently have 38,500 directly employed with a further 70000 jobs dependent on the space sector. By 2030 the UK aims to have a further 100,000 new people employed within the sector. Training space engineers and scientists is critical to fulfilling this need. The UK-based “Space Universities Network” (SUN) was formed in 2016 with the aim of enhancing the quality of learning and teaching by providing support and resources to the Space science and engineering higher education community. SUN’s objectives are to facilitate the creation of a skilled workforce of graduates who can meet the challenges of future scientific and commercial exploitation of space. The network addresses this need by helping to inspire students to join the space sector and ensuring they are well equipped at University to contribute. SUN enables the developing, sharing and promotion of effective practice and innovation in the delivery of university-level space science and engineering curricula. It does this through workshops, offering opportunities for networking to support the space teaching community and a web-based repository of resources. This paper describes the process that led to the foundation of SUN, its objectives, modes of operation, prime activities, evaluation and future projects. Once firmly established, it is hoped to expand the network through partnerships with similar organisations in other countries

The language of food: carving out a place for food studies in language curricula

This chapter argues for the place of food studies in tertiary language studies programs. With a myriad of changes to education throughout the twentieth century, language study lost its eminent position as a gateway to higher learning, which means we are required to articulate our relevance to students and university governance. Food and food culture have great appeal amongst students and carving out a place for food studies in our language curricula allows us to generate a new interest amongst a changed student cohort. As well as providing students with an enriching way of learning about other cultures, the non-canonical and universal phenomenon of food or food discourse has the advantage of being immediately accessible to our students who all have their own experiences of food. The study of food also provides us with an opportunity to enhance students’ intercultural skills, which have increasing value in the global workplace. Understanding the multiple layers of meaning attached to food and food culture helps students to develop a sensitivity to the importance of the everyday in their interactions with other cultures. We will discuss this synergy between languages and food studies in the context of tertiary language studies in Spanish and Italian, detailing some of the initiatives in this area