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Awards for AGH UST student research clubs

A coloured photo of commemorative statuettes presented to the winners of the competition. The statuettes represent female figures in floaty dresses with hands reaching up and holding a string.

Awards for AGH UST student research clubs
awards student projects

In the all-Polish Studencki Ruch Naukowy (StRuNa) competition, the AGH UST student research clubs received awards in three categories. The title of the best student research club of 2022 went to Eko-Energia AGH. Furthermore, AGH Space Systems came first in the StRuNa-Science category and its SHREAMP 2.0. proved to be the best project of the past year.

Eko-Energia AGH has been operating by the Faculty of Energy and Fuels for years, and its main goal is to develop technologies related to renewable energy sources. In this case, the team members chose the wind. They designed and constructed a wind turbine with a variable-diameter diffuser. This solution improves the energy efficiency of the energy conversion process and makes the project innovative. In 2021, the project made it to the semi-finals of a competition organised by the National Centre for Research and Development related to energy solutions. The club has also been busy with other smaller projects, such as the construction of a weather station, a hydroponic farming stand, and a photovoltaic conversion stand. The supervisor of Eko-Energia AGH is Maciej Żołądek, MSc Eng., who received an honourable mention in the Academic Supervisor of the Year 2022 category.

Photo: KSAF AGH; source: facebook.com/skn.ekoenergia

A coloured photo showing members of the Eko-Energia Student Research Club. Behind them, there is a large wind turbine.

AGH Space Systems is an interdisciplinary construction team that works on developing technologies for the space industry. Members of the team build sounding rockets, Martian rovers, planetary landing modules, and stratospheric balloon gondolas. Their passionate and eagerness-driven work resulted in numerous successes in Poland and abroad. In the past year, the team has won the prestigious European Rover Challenge and came third in the Spaceport America Cup 2022 in the category of SRAD hybrid rockets. Kalman, the team’s Martian rover, turned 5 this year.

The photo shows 10 members of the AGH Space Systems team. They are standing next to one another in a row, holding their rocket horizontally in their hands. An AGH UST flag hangs from the rocket.

Photo: source facebook.com/aghspace/

SHREAMP 2.0 (Space Habitat Research – Effectiveness of Anestetic Monitoring Payload) is a project that aims to test the possibility of safely transporting prawns into Earth’s orbit and the orbits of other planets. Neocaridina davidi prawns could play a vital role as nitrogen producers in an aquaponic system, that is, a future food production system, including fish and plants. Considering that transporting prawns in a rocket can cause significant stress in the crustaceans, the team tested the possibility of using sedatives during flight. This procedure aims to provide comfort to the prawns and to take care of their condition after landing. The students developed an innovative monitoring system that collects video footage for later analysis of the behaviour of prawns during flight.
Let’s not forget that during the IT is ME Student Innovation Festival organised by the AGH UST, the SHREAMP project received an award for the best innovative student project that uses IT tools.

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The StRuNa competition aims to recognise the teams that have implemented the most fascinating scientific projects during the past academic year. The event was open to students and doctoral students of Polish universities who, between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 have carried out scientific projects in teams within university research clubs, editorial offices of academic media, academic associations, or executive bodies of student or doctoral student governments.

The results of this year’s edition were announced during an official gala at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

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