Al-Farabi KazNU, UNICEF launch joint project for girls
Vice-Rector for Scientific and Innovative Activities Tlekkabul Ramazanov, Deputy Representative of the UN Children’s Fund in Kazakhstan Veronika Vashchenko, lecturers and students of the University took part in the official launch ceremony of the project.
Twenty girls have been selected to participate in the project. These are students of Kazakhstani Universities and high school students. They will have a unique opportunity to study courses on creating nanosatellites on the basis of the Science and Technology Park of Al-Farabi KazNU. The course is designed for five months and includes such important stages of creating spacecraft as projecting, design, programming, assembly, testing and launch. After completing the training, the girls have to create models of nanosatellites that are planned to be launched into the upper atmosphere.
«Innovation, young people’s development and the promotion of gender equality are very important to UNICEF. Girls’ participation in the nanosatellite programme will open up new opportunities for them. I am sure that the results of UniSAT will make it possible to achieve «cosmic» changes in society», - emphasized at the launch ceremony Veronika Vashchenko, the UNICEF Deputy Representative in Kazakhstan.
Vice-Rector of KazNU Tlekkabul Ramazanov highlighted that the University has been implementing a project to create a scientific and technological school for the development of small spacecraft since 2012. Two nanosatellites of «Аl-Farabi» series have already been launched into space, and the developed educational construction kits of the «AlfaSat» nanosatellite are used in training at schools and Universities of the country.
«Today we have launched the UniSat Education Project with UNICEF, in which only girls participate. We believe it will be another step in the development of STEM education among the beautiful half of our country. It is gratifying that the opening of the courses have coincided with the International Women’s Day of March 8», - said Amirkhan Temirbaev, Director of KazNU Technology Park.
