TWO AWARDS FOR SOUTHAMPTON STUDENT SPACE TEAM

A team of student innovators from the University of Southampton have won two prestigious engineering awards for developing a system that could transform spacecraft control.

The Meta Futura Aerospace team is made up of five Aerospace Engineering students from across Europe.

Their invention, Meta Flex, is a ground-breaking attitude and orbit control system designed for space organisations, satellite operators and research institutions. The team says its two-thruster design uses friction-free compliant gimbal systems to replace conventional eight-thruster mechanisms, enabling spacecrafts to effortlessly rotate in any direction, and therefore broadening access to advanced space missions.

The team consists of Pedro Rodriguez (21), Fabrizio Pisani (22), Nestoras Papageorgiou (21), Marcin Badowski (23) and Elena Carulla (21) – all of whom have been studying at the University of Southampton.

On Friday 3 November, the team scooped two prizes at the Engineering in Business Champion of Champions grand final at the Royal Academy of Engineering and hosted by TV presenter and engineer, Rob Bell.

The team picked up top prize in the Big Ideas category, winning £3,000 and mentorship to help them take their business idea to the next level. They also won the in-show Audience Prize of £500.

Nestoras said: “This money will go straight into developing our first prototype to accelerate the process and increase the different types of capabilities it will have.

“Thank you to Engineers In Business Fellowship for hosting and organising the event, and congratulations to all the other finalists who showcased their great ideas. This is one more step of an exciting journey and we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.”

The team also received CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurial books from Cambridge University Press and Double your Price, a book by David Falzani MBE, which covers how pricing works with practical insights, tools and actionable guidance.

The event was the culmination of a year of enterprise competitions held across UK universities, with thousands of undergraduate and graduates taking part.

Each year, Engineers in Business Fellowship champions business education for engineers and supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society.