Workshop in Brussels

During the first week of May the ESRs found their way to the capital of Belgium to the host of the second workshop of the year 2023, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

The first technical visit to SABCA, located in Chaussée de Haecht, introduced the ESRs to one of the main aerospace and defence actors in Belgium. The SABCA Group belongs to a unique industrial ecosystem, Orizio Group, made up of Sabca (Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) and its subsidiaries Sabca Limburg and Sabca Maroc. SABCA conducts its activities from the three Belgian regions as well as from Casablanca in Morocco. The core business includes: metallic & composite structures, advanced thrust vectoring systems, major maintenance & upgrades as well as wet lease drone services. The visits continued in the afternoon at Aerospacelab, in Louvain-la-Neuve. This company delivers solutions for: satellite platforms, components and other end-to-end space solutions. Additionally, Aerospacelab offers analysis and decision-making for its customers to enhance their strategic, economic and environmental assessments with near real-time signals.

The second day of activities was a hands-on experimental activities at Beauvechain Air Base, during which ESR9 (Riccardo Gelain) introduced the researchers and their supervisors to the test-bench for Hybrid Rocket Engines and the whole group was challenged to perform hot-fire tests with great excitement from all participants!

The following days involved the ESRs with the ESCP Workshop at Campus ULB, focused on exploring entrepreneurial leadership. The ESCP activities included: introduction to entrepreneurial leadership, spaghetti challenge (team) and IKIGAI (individual) exercises, pitching and feedbacking individual purpose stories, communication and leadership in the context of the venture, together with guidelines and advices for the funding process in entrepreneurship.