Training on Space Education & Awareness Drive (T-SEAD)

Overall Objectives

To establish an active space education & awareness scheme based on Pakistan's Space Education & Awareness Drive i.e. SEAD model
To foster intra OIC relationship in the field of Space Science & technology

Project Details

Space science and technology is now being used in almost all walks of life and has undoubtedly become an indispensable part of our lives. Communication, navigation, weather forecasting, sustainable agriculture, health, food security, mapping and surveying, disaster monitoring; the list is endless rather ever increasing. However, there still exists a dire need of space education and awareness amongst people even in the developed space faring world, let alone the need in developing countries.
Public support for space programs, efficient and dedicated human resource and general familiarization are key driving factors for the success of space sector. Space Education and public awareness are thus critically important, especially in developing countries. It helps to:-
1. Shape public perspective and attitude towards national space policy
2. Promote space sector as an opportune career field for younger generations
3. Encourage young minds to delve into related academics and serve in research and development in space science, technology, applications and allied fields.
4. Foster relations between national academia and industry
5. Contribute towards global science community
Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) being the national space agency of Pakistan is mandated to conduct R&D in space science, technology and applications for socio-economic uplift and national security. Under the stated mandate, SUPARCO devised an active education and public awareness scheme titled as 'Space education and Awareness Drive (SEAD)' with following objectives.
1. To maximize outreach in the country
2. To engage kids and younger generation into space themed activities
3. To provide a forum to Pakistani students, researchers and educators to contribute, collaborate and compete on both national and international forums of space science and technology.
SEAD featured a dedicated website (www.sead.pk) and social media page (www.facebook.com/SEAD.PAKISTAN) infusing online activities with physical, public events. The utility of internet and social media technology were harnessed to make space science and technology familiar, understandable and accessible to all. Some of the prominent and regular activities of SEAD include:
1. Online Contests
2. Academic Visits
3. Industry- academia linkage
4. Curriculum development
5. Internships
6. University projects
7. R&D Collaboration
8. Space Science Experiments
9. Space Van Outreach Activity
10. World Space Week
11. National Coordination of international events
12. International collaborations
13. Conferences/ Exhibitions / Seminars etc.
SEAD evolved as a successful model for space education and public awareness in the country. The online activities and social media promotion notably nourished achieving the objectives amid restricted environments and lockdowns due to prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic.
In the recent activity of World Space Week the outreach crossed a hundred thousand people in just a week, substantially increasing the quantitative as well as qualitative level of participation from all over the country. The awareness program also contribute towards achieving Global Goals by being credibly in line with a number of United National Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
1. The focus is to develop an end to end solution for farmers so that the system may be deployed with minimal training and infrastructure by using intelligent algorithms.
2. In order to optimize per acre yield of a crop, regular monitoring of crop's health and fields composition is required for taking appropriate measures in case of any abnormality is observed. For crops spanning over a large area, monitoring is difficult and a labour intensive task. With the result, crops are prone to damage due to lack of timely remedial measures.
3. The proposed system will collect optical and multi-spectral data of crops and fields through fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The UAVs will coordinate to make effective path planning for scanning larger agriculture fields. Ultimately, this approach allows more data to be acquired faster, with less effort.
4. The proposed solution will also employ Internet of Things (IoT) based well-distributed field sensors on ground to monitor soil condition, weather, crop health status and to make data logs. These field sensors are in contact with soil or at a very close range which would help in soil characterization. Cognitive IoT solutions can sense all these data and provide strong insight to improve yield.
5. Crop monitoring and field status will be realized through AI based smart solutions using deep learning algorithms. The developed algorithm will process and analyse high-quality, multi-sensor data obtained from optical/multispectral payloads for better crop yield estimation, health assessment and growth monitoring. The proposed intelligent solution will enable farmers for timely detection of any impending anomaly on a regular basis to enable optimization of returns and preserving resources.
6. The proposal consists of a decision support system comprising data processing and management as well as an end user terminal for data products provision. This will allow users to monitor and plan agricultural cycle more efficiently by taking timely actions and applying fertilizers, pesticides and other resources intelligently using geospatial information of crops.
7. The project will provide critical information to increase crop production, health monitoring and controlled utilization of resources to maximize the productivity and ensure food security in the country

Expected Benefits On behalf of Pakistan, SUPARCO tends to share the SEAD model in fellow OIC member countries titled as 'Training on Space Education & Awareness Drive (T-SEAD)'. As the name implies, the project tends to literally seed the nations with space enthusiasm and let it grow into a fruitful, healthy tree. It primarily aims at:

Establishing a successful public awareness trend
Create momentum in space education sector
Promote academia-industry linkage
Encourage research in the fields of space science, technology and applications