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| INTRODUCTION
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SEEDS first originated in 2005 as the joint
project of three European universities, namely an Italian (Politecnico
di Torino), a French one (Supaero Toulouse, now ISAE) and a German one
(Bremen Universität) under the auspices of the Directorate of Human
Spaceflight of the European Space Agency (ESA). The 2009-10 edition
will be the fifth one. SEEDS is therefore an international endeavouring
whose main object is that to prepare advanced and ready-to-work
specialists in the challenging and fascinating domain of the Human
Space Exploration and of the development of the related systems.
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| WHY THIS
MASTER? |
Thanks to its innovative
programme, SEEDS aims to meet the request emerging from the European
Space Industry of a new generation of high level specialists, whose
main characteristics are those to be educated in an international
environment and to have acquired a special experience in working on
advanced projects in some of the most renowned Space Centres, Agencies
and Companies of the European Union.
To fulfil these objectives, SEEDS has been
designed to take advantage from the collaboration of three European
towns, namely Torino in Italy, Toulouse in France and Bremen in
Germany, whose common feature is that of hosting industries and
research centres linked to one another by a long-standing tradition of
co-operation in space.
The main object of SEEDS is the exploration of
space and the development of the related systems. It deliberately
differs from the utilization of the space, which forms the object of
other existing postgraduate courses (most of them on national bases).
Selecting the space exploration as its principal theme, SEEDS aims to
harness the most recent development lines emerging in the space
strategies of both the European Union and the USA and, according to
these strategies, to prepare the specialists who will be required in
the near future. Back to Index
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| JOB
OPPORTUNITIES |
Being focused
on the Engineering of the Space Systems for Exploration and
Development, the SEEDS Master Course is perfectly phased with the
national, European and international projects on Exploration such as
the ESA Aurora Programme and the NASA Constellation Programme (see www.esa.int and www.nasa.gov).
SEEDS main stakeholders are the major European
Space Agencies and Companies involved in Exploration projects, such as
the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian, German and French Space
Agencies (ASI, DLR and CNES), the ASTRIUM, Thales Alenia Space, OHB
Systems Companies and other establishments. These organizations are
strongly interested to the Master initiative because its main focus
lies on the training of young engineering resources oriented to the
specific Exploration system products, prepared to work in an
international context and trained on the job by using modern and
company oriented engineering methodologies.
It is expected that the students successfully
completing the SEEDS courses and associated Project Works are employed
by the partner organizations at the proper level in their Engineering
Teams working on the Space Exploration projects. The employment data of
the graduates from the three SEEDS editions (the only ones concluded at
present, the fourth being still running) confirm these expectations: 33
out of 35 graduates from the 2005/06 to the 2007/2008 editions are
presently working on space activities in Europe and the remaining two
in other industrial domains. Therefore the employment rate is 100%.
Impressions from the first three classes of
SEEDS
graduates are available HERE. Back to Index
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ADMISSION
REQUIREMENTS
AND
SELECTION OF
APPLICANTS |
A Bac+5 A Bac+5 level degree (e.g.
French Diplôme d’Ingénieur, Italian Laurea Magistrale or former 5-year
Laurea, German Diplom or equivalent degree at MSc level) in Industrial
Engineering (Aerospace, Mechanical, Thermal, Nuclear, Electronics …),
in Information and Communications Technologies or in Physical Sciences
is required. Bsc or MEng degrees at a minimum level of Bac+4 may also
be considered for admission. A good working knowledge of English is
required to the participants.
Applications
in Torino must be submitted through the website www.formazione.corep.it/seeds
by filling the on-line form.
A Selection’s Board, made up of the SEEDS Director, the COREP
Organizational Coordinator and a few representatives of the Academia or
the Space Industry, will examine all submitted forms and curricula,
discard those not complying to the general acceptance requests and
invite the eligible applicants to an oral interview in English (in the
case of candidates from outside Italy this may also be performed by
phone or via webcam). At the end of the selection process a ranking
list of the successful applicants will be produced. These will be
enrolled in the SEEDS Master Course according to the position in the
list and to the number of available places.
Applications in Toulouse may be submitted through the website of the
Mastère Specialisé Techniques Aéronautiques et Spatiales – Astronautics
(“TAS-Astro”) programme http://www.isae.fr/modules/resources/download/default/Formations/masters/ms/TAS-astro.pdf
by selecting the option SEEDS in the on-line
application form. This
programme provides all main SEEDS contents also imparted in
SEEDS-Torino: students enrolled in Tolouse can therefore attend there
the SEEDS teaching phase before joining the Project Work activity.
No SEEDS enrolment is foreseen in Bremen, but the Project
Work phases are regularly foreseen in all three associated towns. Back to Index
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DIRECTION
AND
ORGANIZATION |
Prof.
Ernesto Vallerani, former President of Alenia Space and former
Vice Chairman of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has
been appointed as Educational Project Manager, with the charge to
harmonize the educational programmes, to propose the common framework
for the Projects Works, to establish and maintain contacts with the
European Institutions and ESA and to represent SEEDS.
Besides
the General Coordinator each of the partner Universities has appointed
a local programme director and local responsible persons for the
organisation. The local programme directors are:
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Prof. Gianfranco Chiocchia at Politecnico di Torino, E-mail: gianfranco.chiocchia@polito.it
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Prof. Bénédicte Escudier at Supaero Toulouse, E-mail: benedicte.escudier@isae.fr
Prof.
Chiocchia is also Director of the general
SEEDS structure. An experienced senior engineer (Mr. Enrico Beruto,
former System Engineering Manager at Thales Alenia Space) has been
charged with the general co-ordination of the Project Work activities,
which he follows during their whole development in the three associated
towns. The Torino site is managed by COREP (Consortium for Research and
Continuing Educational at Politecnico di Torino) where it provides also
a permanent SEEDS Secretary through Ms. Elena Roggieri, E-mail eroggieri@corep.it.
She may be contacted for information. More details on the local
organisational structures can be found in the local SEEDS websites
given above.
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COURSE
PROGRAMME |
The course
working language is English. The overall duration of the SEEDS Master
Course is 14-15 months for a total amount of 1784 hours and 90 European
Credit (ECTS) points. It will start in Fall 2009 and will be concluded
at the end of 2010 (the start times of the teaching phase are different
in Torino and Toulouse: see the local websites for more details).
The first six months (about 800 hours) are spent either at Politecnico
di Torino (SEEDS programme) or at ISAE-Supaero (TAS-Astro programme)
and mainly consist of class lectures and exercises providing the
general foundations of the various disciplines related to Space
Exploration. Conferences and lectures of distinguished personalities
are also foreseen throughout this phase. The planned average class
attendance is almost 32 hours/week. Learning assessments on all
subjects are foreseen at the end of any lecture phase, possibly grouped
to homogeneous clusters to be evaluated as a whole.
In
the following nine months (about 1000 hours) the students prepare their
and develop the SEEDS Project Work under the guide of experienced
senior tutors. Thanks to its extension this Project Work is one of the
main characteristic features of SEEDS. A specific theme is identified
every year (e.g. the preliminary design of a lunar outpost and that of
a lunar permanent basis have been the themes of the first two SEEDS
editions). The Project Work is divided into three phases, each one
lasting about two months and dedicated to a specific aspect of the
selected theme, taking also into account the locally available
dominating competences. The three phases are hosted in a temporal
sequence by universities, industries and centres of the three
associated European towns. During the whole Project Work the students
from the SEEDS Partner Universities are grouped together and work in
cross-national teams. The Project Work itself is an advanced and
ambitious activity, intended to lead to scientific reports to be
diffused worldwide in the space community. The activities performed
during the 2006, 2007 and 2007 Project Works are described in Executive
Summary 2006 , Executive
Summary 2007, Executive
Summary 2008
and Executive
Summary 2009 respectively.
The SEEDS teaching activities display only slight differences among
Torino and Toulouse. The imparted subjects will include topics like
Space and planetary environment, Astrodynamics, Mission analysis, Space
human engineering, Space utilization, Space system engineering, Space
programme management, Planetary aerothermodynamics, Space robotics,
Space propulsion, Guidance and control, Environmental control and life
support, Thermal control, Space telecommunications, Power generation,
Space materials and structures and several others.
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| SEEDS
LOCATIONS
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Lectures
and exercises of the first 6 months are performed either at
Politecnico di Torino (SEEDS programme) or at ISAE-Supaero (TAS-Astro
programme) according to where they have been enrolled. An introduction
to the Project Work (about 15 days) is subsequently performed in
Torino. Then the three Project Work phases (about two months each one)
are sequentially performed in Toulouse, Bremen and Torino under the
supervision of senior experts from the local Space Industry and of the
general Project Work co-ordinator. They may include extensive stage
periods. The reported sequence may be modified each year according to
the educational and organizational needs. Back to Index
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ATTENDANCE,
EVALUATION
AND
DEGREE AWARDING |
A discussion
on the Project Work results concludes the Master course
and finally leads to the award of the degree of the University in which
students have been enrolled. Additionally, a - jointly released -
common SEEDS Certificate will be attached to the National Degrees. In
the first three SEEDS editions this discussion took place at the
ESA.ESTEC Space Centre in Noordwjik (The Netherlands), a tradition
which is expected to continue. Back to Index
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TUITION FEES
AND
CONDITIONS FOR SEEDS TO
BE ACTIVATED
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A maximum
number of 15 participants is foreseen at each SEEDS enrolment
site. The tuition fees are fixed by each SEEDS Partner in accordance
with the financial supports available from the local sponsors (see the
above quoted websites for more information on the local fees). It would
be advisable, however, that the participants activate themselves in
order to obtain additional sponsorships from their Local Authorities
and other societal entities.
A few places covered
by ESA fellowships (with
full fee exemption) are
still available for
candidates from the ESA and PECS countries who are applying up
for the
SEEDS
enrolment in the Torino site (see www.formazione.corep.it/seeds
for the list of the eligible countries and any further information).
Accommodation
and travel costs in Torino, Bremen and Toulouse and during the Project
Work phases are to be sustained by the students. Organisational support
in finding accommodation, however, is provided by the SEEDS Partner.
Both SEEDS Partners Politecnico di Torino
and ISAE-Supaero may determine a minimum number of local participants
for the SEEDS programme to take place.
All detailed information related to the
local SEEDS organisation, procedures and conditions for application,
tuition fees, deadlines for application, help for accommodation,
location of the teaching activities and so on can be found in the
Italian and French SEEDS websites. Back to Index
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Index
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