Presentation Synopsis:

“A VOLUNTEER-LED PROGRAMMING CLUB SPACE EDUCATION, FROM ROVERS AND CANSAT TO POCKETQUBE AND CUBESATS”

CoderDojo Oradea is a volunteer-led programming club. Four years ago, a high-school team of four students won its first space-related rover competition (ROSA's Exo-Ro National Rover Challenge), aimed higher, and won the National CanSat competition as their first participation. It was the beginning of our side activities in space exploration. Four years later, we are now involved in a myriad of different activities related to coding, robotics, and space exploration, designing satellites for the CanSat program, and developing software for their missions. But we raised the bar and are now involved in developing a PocketCube mission, started as an educational project. The project started as a joint activity with another programming club, and together we developed RSA-1, the prototype of our PocketQube. We will present our PocketQube satellite design and our plans for improving it and developing it as a PocketCube format for educational purposes and promoting it to high schools to inspire young generations of coders and engineers. The presentation provides an overview of the technologies used, the development process of our Cube, and the planned applications that can be done with it. We will then discuss the roadmap to making PocketCubes available to more schools and universities, as well as our plans for the future of CoderDojo Oradea. We will showcase some of our robotics work and how it relates to coding and space exploration. Finally, we'll discuss the importance of coding clubs and how they can promote the development of STEM skills, support young coders and engineers, and help to shape future generations.