Students gain hands-on experience building, testing, and potentially flying a 1U CubeSat prototype, mentored by experts from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, MIT, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) Build-A-CubeSat program offers high school students a challenging, project-based experience in satellite development. The program consists of two main components: an online course and a four-week summer program. The online course provides foundational knowledge in satellite development, including computer-driven exercises for mission design trades involving communication, power, size, mass, and performance. During the intensive four-week summer component, students engage in hands-on activities, building and testing spacecraft hardware. They participate in daily lectures covering basics and guest lectures on key spacecraft systems. Students work in teams to gain exposure to hardware testing, assembly, and programming, mentored by Lincoln Laboratory staff, MIT faculty and graduate students, and WHOI engineers and scientists. The program culminates in the assembly and testing of a working 1U CubeSat prototype with an imaging payload, often addressing a real-world science mission like lunar terrain survey or ocean plastic imaging. Students develop advanced STEM skills in mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, systems design, and teamwork.
A typical day during the four-week summer program involves daily lectures reviewing CubeSat basics and guest lectures on key spacecraft systems, followed by hands-on team-based work in the lab building, testing, assembling, and programming spacecraft hardware.
This program is best for high-achieving high school students entering their senior year who are interested in aerospace engineering, satellite development, and hands-on, project-based learning.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
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