Summer Academy fills the summer of students with exciting internships

In the summer, one can meet even more bright-eyed youngsters than usually in Tõravere because the observatory’s Summer Academy brings to the observatory pupils and students who can get to know the field of space they are most interested in.

„The Summer Academy is a great chance to spend the summer productively but yet in a fun way,“ said Projects Coordinator of Tartu Observatory Karoli Kahn. The Summer Academy incorporates all the activities going on at the observatory in the summer: students participate in the work of the observatory through, for example, Science Task Force, the SpaceTEM project and the Erasmus+ programme. Some of them do their internship as a part of their studies. In total, there are 25 interns and they come from both Estonia and Latvia.

The interns were picked out regarding the fact that they had built up an interest in a particular activity of the observatory and had essential knowledge and skills in that field. „Many of them had interesting research projects to show that added some extra points to their application,“ said Kahn.

Working with ESTCube and enterprises

A lot of the Summer Academy participants get to become a part of the ESTCube-2 team. They can participate in developing the software of the satellite subsystems, the stellar camera, and the test devices of the satellite. They can also get to know what the job of an engineer looks like.

This year, ESTCube uses the two-week sprint method for the first time. That means that every two weeks, teams are formed in order to work on bigger tasks. „By now, the teams for the first two weeks of working together have been formed and they are actively working,“ Kahn stated. Some interns are also studying data processing at the astrophysics department and working at the test laboratories.

Through the SpaceTEM project led by Tartu Observatory, three students were sent to do their internships at Estonian enterprises. One of them is at the defence company Milrem and two at KappaZeta which specializes on using radar remote sensing for monitoring grasslands.

Some interns who are just only getting to know their internship topics are doing research on the theoretical material and learning to use the new software first.

Science Task Force

Five Science Task Force pupils joined the Summer Academy on July 2. This year, the Science Force Task scholarships were handed out to Adrian Kirikal, Kadi Siigur, Leonid Zinatullin, Aksel Bulavs, and Silvia Hiie Aabloo. Four of them will be integrated into the ESTCube-2 team. Siigur was awarded the special scholarship of Milrem and can participate in developing of unmanned vehicles.

Besides the internships, the Summer Academy also consists of different events. For example, the interns will participate in seminars.