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PROFESSOR: In order
to anchor the class,

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and provide an application
that is at the same time

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realistic, but not
overly complex,

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we chose to participate in
the 2016 CANSAT competition.

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And CANSAT is just what
the name stands for.

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It's the design of
a satellite, that

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fits into a can,
that is launched,

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not into space,
but at relatively

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high altitude with a
sounding rocket, essentially.

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And so the CANSAT
competition has

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been run for about 20 years.

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It's quite well
known, and there's

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teams from all across the
world that participate.

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There is now a CANSAT
competition in the US.

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There's also a
European version of it.

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The goal of the
CANSAT competition,

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is for students
to go step by step

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through the design process.

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The starting point
for the students,

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is a set of requirements,
47 requirements that

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are given by the
organizers, about what

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the particular system has to do.

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For example, the CANSAT has to
fit within the payload fairing

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of the rocket.

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It has to survive the launch.

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So a certain number of
g loads and vibrations

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have to be survivable
by the payload.

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The payload then has to
separate into both the glider

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portion, and the
actual container that

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contains the payload.

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On its way down, the payload has
to fly in a circular pattern,

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for about two minutes.

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And during the descent, it
has to record temperature

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and pressure of the atmosphere.

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And you get extra
bonus points if you

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record images, and transmit
those images to the ground.

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The students who are
responsible for everything

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except the rocket itself.

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So the design of the glider, the
container, the ground station,

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and all the procedures.

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So what's interesting about
systems engineering and design,

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is that there are
different approaches,

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how to tackle the problem.

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One is an approach where
you take it step by step,

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and you try to basically get
the right answer at every step.

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But, at some point you need
to check yourself, as well,

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with milestones.

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The other approach,
and that's typically

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what we call a waterfall,
or stage gate process, which

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is what's applied in very
large systems, where it's

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too expensive to do
a lot of prototypes,

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and you have to get it
right the first time.

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The other approach is spiral
development, or agile,

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or rapid development, where
you do quick prototypes,

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and you learn very quickly,
and iterate your design.

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And in some sense, what
we're doing in this class,

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is a combination of the two.

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What was very
rewarding, is to see

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how students ideated
their concepts, always

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keeping in mind
the requirements,

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and the end goal in mind.

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But, also testing those
ideas, either through modeling

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and simulation, or with
very simple prototypes that

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can be made out of paper.

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One team actually produced
a 3D printed version,

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of their glider, even
though that wasn't

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officially necessary before
the key milestone, which

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is the PDR.

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And so it was
interesting to see,

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how every team approached
it slightly differently.