Student Competition

The Frank J. Redd Student Competition provides students with the opportunity to share their work on small satellite concepts, research, and missions. This is the premiere aerospace competition in the nation. All finalists will receive monetary awards and will present on the main stage at the Small Satellite Conference.

2026 Finalists

Wednesday, August 26, 8:15 AM | Grand Ballroom

• Truman Abbe - Utah State University
• Robert Rathert - Virginia Tech
• Daniel Kichma - UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory
• Bruno Ingrao - KU Leuven/Starforge
• Josh Taylor - Utah State University
• Dexter Stewart - UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory

Co-Chairs

BT Cesul, Technical Chair | Valerie Skarupa, Endowment Chair

Judges

• NASA: Sachidananda Babu - NASA HQ
• At Large: Nathan Stastny - Space Dynamics Laboratory
• Industry: Vishnuu Mallik - Planet
• International: Luis Loures - ITA Brazil
• Academia: Molly Cooper - Ferris State University
• DoW: Brian Engberg - Air Force Research Laboratory

Paper Selection

A panel of judges drawn from industry, academia, and government will score each paper. Papers will be scored using the first three of the four criteria listed below. The top six papers will be selected for presentation at the Conference. Following the presentation, the final scores are tallied and the Student Competition results are announced at the Competition Awards Ceremony.

Scoring Criteria

• Technical Content and/or Scientific Merit (40%)
• Industry Relevance (15%)
• Clarity of Writing (20%)
• Presentation and Response to Questions (25%)

Presentation

Student finalists will present their papers at the Small Satellite Conference.

All authors identified in the technical paper must participate in the presentation—plan accordingly.

Students will be given a maximum of 12 minutes to present their paper, followed by 3 minutes for pre-prepared questions from the judges.

Participation Rules

• Participants may not author or co-author more than one paper.
• Papers are limited to three authors.
• All persons identified as authors must participate in the presentation—plan accordingly.
• Students are required to register for the Conference.
• Technical questions and/or judging issues or concerns should be communicated with the Technical Chair; contact Marianne Sidwell.
• Contact with judges directly, either before or after the competition is prohibited and may result in disqualification.

Authors failing to comply with any of these rules may be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Technical Chair.