This year, Team Asteroid Destroyer from the University of Regina won the first prize for the Global Connection Award at the 2024 NASA International Space Apps Challenge.
The challenge,considered the largest annual international hackathon, is a two-day event twhere participants use NASA’s free open data and the Space Agency’s Partners’ space-based data to find solutions to real-world challenges on earth and in space.
On Oct. 5 and 6, 2024, students from across the country came together with program experts and designers to find solutions to science, design and communications challenges. Sixteen global agencies collaborated to host the event which took place both in person and virtually.
The Carillon spoke with Satyam Singh, one of the co-leads of Team Asteroid Destroyerand a second-year computer science undergraduate to get his take on their win.
How did your experience at the University of Regina help prepare you for this competition, and what resources or support did you receive from the university?
As a second year, I have not taken many courses at the university specifically related to this type of challenge. But from my previous hackathon experience, I can say that I had enough knowledge to be able to prepare for the NASA Space Apps competition.We did not receive funding from the university but hopefully in the future there will be.
Can you tell us about your project, Asteroid Destroyer, and what inspired your team to take on this challenge?
Our project is a 3D interactive web platform that has the HWO, that is the Habitable World Observatory telescope. It is a 3D website so you can just check it out using the link. NASA gave us the problem challenge that we used. We thought this project is something doable, that we can relate to and that we would have the most experience with. They gave us a lot of data files which are basically on an excel sheet and contain information about a star,which is the sun. The challenge was to convert the data into a cartation place so that we can actually put it in a website.There were a lot of things that we had to take care of.
What was the biggest challenge your team faced during the 24-hour competition, and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was actually travelling to Saskatoon. We have travelled every now and then to Saskatoon and Calgary for different competitions such as hackathons and CTFs. By the same time, it was a Saturday morning, and we were all just so busy and sleep deprived as well. But our teamwork made it happen.
How did it feel to be recognized by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency for your work?
It is great to be recognized by NASA and CSA. It gives us a boost and getting recognized for the effort that we put in is an amazing feeling.
Can you break down the distinct roles each team member played in developing the project?
I worked on the concept to see if this project is actually viable and after that, I worked on the web platform along with Sathyajit. Kapeesh worked on data transformation, to scale the data and convert it into cartation play. Kane worked on the design and the PPT presentation.
What are your future plans? Do you see yourselves participating in more competitions or working on space-related projects?
I might not participate in more competitions now because I have already participated in forty-two hackathons and I have won thirty-three of them. So I might just go for international ones not domestic ones anymore. We have a meeting with Canadian Space Agency, so we are going to see how to use this project and make it useful for CSA and NASA.
What advice would you give to other students who are interested in joining global competitions like the NASA Space Apps Challenge?
The advice that I have is to just go for it. It is better to face your fears than to let your fears stop you from doing something. These hackathons are a fantastic way to differentiate you from others. Computer science is a creative form of work as well as highly technical.
