Indian companies are interested in space applications from BUT

A group of scientists from Brno University of Technology (BUT) led by the university's SPACE coordinator Vratislav Šálený attended the Czech-Indian Industrial Day in Prague on 18 April, which offered a showcase of space applications. The event was organised by the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic. This was the first space industrial day that the ministry has organised with India. This provided a unique opportunity for Czech companies and research institutes to interact with representatives of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian Space Industry Association (ISpA) and leading companies in the Indian space industry.

After the presentation of the Czech and Indian space industries, bilateral meetings were held on cooperation on joint projects and possible supply of cutting-edge Czech technologies for the Indian space programme. These meetings resulted in specific possibilities of cooperation for the BUT.

From the year 2022 - 2023, students can study at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies (FEKT) the new master's program Space Applications, which was created based on the demand of industrial partners and is taught only in English. The sponsor of the program, Tomáš Götthans from the Institute of Radioelectronics, discussed with Indian representatives exchange student and employee internships between the BUT and Indian universities.

In the field of research and development, the company Kepler Aerospace from the Indian space industry center in Bengaluru, which deals with the design and development of small satellites and the design, production and management of defense systems, has shown interest in cooperation with BUT. The company is interested in a pilot project to test the simulation software platform created by Uptimai in the design of its satellites.

The authors of the Uptimai platform are Martin Kubíček and Tomáš Koutník, graduates of the Aviation Institute of the BUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who developed this platform in the space project incubator ESA BIC Prague. The Indian partners were particularly interested in the unique smart optimization algorithm, which uses artificial intelligence to obtain key design information from small data sets.

Jan Král, another representative of the Institute of Radio Electronics at FEEC, presented the application of artificial intelligence in signal processing. Based on the Indian side's interest in this application, negotiations are now underway on the framework and financing of the initial cooperation.

"This opens to BUT new opportunities for cooperation with a strong partner that has been successful in space applications for a long time and wants to grow significantly in this area. Moreover, this is a partner that has historically been very close to Czech industry and is very friendly and open," said Vratislav Šálený after the Czech-Indian Industrial Day.

India's space economy was working with a budget of USD 8 billion (approx. CZK 170 billion) in 2022. By 2033, it is expected to reach USD 50 billion (approx. 1,075 billion). For more information, visit the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Authors: Vratislav Šálený, Petr Kubíček