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Unicauca’s graduate promotes space science outreach
With the completion of the Digital Astronomy Festival and the approval of the AESS-IEESE chapter in the city of Popayán, the electronic engineer Sebastián Cajas Ordóñez invites the community in general to occupy their time and become interested in Astronomy.
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After presenting a positive balance in the realization of the Digital Astronomy Festival "Knowing and traveling to the stars", which took place from May 15 to 20, Sebastián Cajas Ordóñez, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineer at the Universidad del Cauca, director of the Francisco José de Caldas Astronomical Observatory and the 360 ° Mobile Planetarium and member of the AESS-IEEE, invites the university community and citizens in general to take an interest in this type of subject.
“My invitation is so that students, professors and directors of the University of Cauca and the community in general, can learn from this wonderful science and get to know our Astronomical Observatory and the activities we carry out continuously (for now in a virtual way). Our goal as a group is to generate spaces for knowledge in space science and astronomy and related areas, and thus to more efficiently occupy their free time in related academic and cultural activities,”he says.
Sebastián Cajas Ordóñez adds that Astronomy is a topic of general interest regardless of age, gender or sex, and it is finally the mother of all sciences and one of the oldest that invites us to be humble, given that it teaches us that the earth is just a small speck of dust in this vast universe. "We humans believe ourselves to be the masters of the universe despite living in a nutshell," as Shakespeare wrote of the ego of human beings. In this way, "we want to share our knowledge because the knowledge belongs to everyone: through the dissemination and conduct of scientific experiments."
“Since the dissemination of space sciences (Astronomy, Aerospace Engineering in particular), we want to raise the name of the University and carry out the activities that we have scheduled: participate in NASA calls, create Rovers, design new satellites and improve what we have, carry out scientific outreach and social activities, among many others, "he adds.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Engineer has been leading the volunteer project in Astronomy of the Ecodestino Sueño Paraíso since 2015 through the Astronomical Observatory and its mobile planetarium, with which they carry out many activities related to astronomy, participating in various courses and presentations in conjunction with the Colombian Astronomy Network (RAC), AIESEC, Workaway, the FUB, the Andrómeda group and the University of Cauca.
This year, together with his team, he began the construction of a canned satellite in the UNAM competition (PEU-UNAM), which was the first Aerospace Engineering activity with the support of Unicaucan teachers and students that has been carried out in this area.
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Currently they have the collaboration of professors Mario Córdoba (Leader of the Satén Astroparaíso team), Lisseth Campo (Leader of the radio telescope team) and Andrés Felipe Escallón (Counselor of the AESS-IEEE chapter) along with nine students, who have decided to promote activities at request the opening of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems (AESS-IEEE) chapter in the city of Popayán, which was approved nationally and internationally.
"Together with Grupo Andrómeda and its director Carlos Realpe, we held the Digital Astronomy Festival, we are going to open the AESS-IEEE chapter and we want to invite more students to belong to our group, since we would like to give more space lovers the opportunity, so that they study, work and learn with us”, concludes Sebastián Cajas Ordóñez.
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Sebastián Andrés Cajas Ordoñez
Email: ulsordonez@unicauca.edu.co