Origins of the Challenge
In March 2006, Dassault Aviation and several partner student associations held a meeting called "Aerocampus" in the Centrale Paris School. They realized that while there is a true enthusiasm for aeronautics and "Things of the Sky" among the engineering students, it was very difficult for the aerospace industry to fulfil their expectations concerning student projects with equity and consistency.
In addition to this, Schools and Universities were more and more pushing their students to invest themselves in intra or extra-curricular projects to complete their academic studies. This evolution corresponded to the wishes of the industrial companies who wanted their new recruits to possess team-working and project-leading skills.
Moreover, the teaching community had a huge innovation potential and a technical expertise which could be used by large scale student projects.
For the students as well as for partners who quickly joined the reflection, the solution must consist in a federating project which could provide them a framework for their aerospace studies.
Created by a group of astronauts and industrials to promote manned suborbital flights in Europe, the Astronaute Club Européen (ACE) chose to support and to animate this initiative enabling students to come closer to aerospace sector.
This was the birth of the Student Aerospace Challenge concept in 2006.
