A research team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev won an international mark of excellence for the educational project that encourages girls to experiment with studying mathematics, engineering, science and technology. The project was created as a unique collaboration between the university and Beit Tabiz and the Israel Space Agency from the Ministry of Science and Technology
The International Federation for Astronautics decided to award this year a "G3" international award to the team of the Remote Sensing and Planetary Imaging Laboratory at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for the educational project SHE-SPACE with the support of the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology.
"She Space", is a unique project established by a team in the field of space and remote sensing and a stable house with the aim of encouraging girls to study and experience science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies. The assumption is that exposure to advanced scientific topics and active experience in research will encourage the girls to engage in these fields later in their lives. The exposure to remote sensing technologies within the project made it possible to take the girls out of their comfort zone and allow them to be exposed to science and research without prejudices.
The Federation's G3 badge of honor is dedicated every year to a leading group in the field that works for ethnic and gender diversity in the space field, that has shown outstanding performance in the field being studied. Many candidates apply for the award and last year the European Space Agency won the award.
The award ceremony will take place at the International Astronautical Conference (IAC) in Dubai. The leader of the program, Dr. Shamrit Maman from the Remote Sensing and Planetary Imaging Laboratory at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will arrive at the event, who is expected to receive a statuette and a certificate of appreciation and will also speak as part of the conference.
After receiving the announcement of the win, Dr. Meman told us that "it is the responsibility of all of us, regardless of age, gender or geographic location, to act together using all available space technologies to deal with climate change. This flagship project allows girls to be exposed to the forefront of research and space technologies and to have cross-border research and social cooperation. I am proud of the entire project team and participants, in Israel and around the world, and full of appreciation for receiving the badge of excellence."
The project began in 2018 and currently takes place in eight different countries and includes leading research groups in the world. Each group of girls deals with a research question related to an environmental matter that is relevant to their country and in the technological aspect uses a local satellite for the purpose of conducting the research. This is how an international research group is created which compares the local and global results and combines the results of the individual projects to understand the climatic processes which affect everyone, explains Dr. Lunia Friedlander from the team. The participants used advanced research tools, computer programming and techniques that are in regular use in the laboratories that took part in the project.
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