Herding CubeCats: Challenges and Lessons Learned From a Student-Led CubeSat Organization

Herding CubeCats: Challenges and Lessons Learned From a Student-Led CubeSat Organization

Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT

1. What is CubeCats?

CubeCats is a student-led technical engineering organization founded in 2015 at the University of Cincinnati (UC) with the mission of providing its members with hands-on, educational experience in space systems engineering, primarily through the design, development, testing, launch, and operation of flight-worthy CubeSats and High Altitude Balloons.

CubeCats’ operating model differs significantly from many university-based satellite programs:

• The organization is entirely managed and run by students, the majority of whom are undergraduates (UC faculty and staff serve primarily in an advisory role)
• The organization is entirely volunteer-based, with no direct integration into coursework or on-campus research laboratories; (collaboration with third parties on-campus and off-campus is possible)
• UC uses a Co-Operative education (Co-Op) model, requiring undergraduate students to perform five semester-long internships to graduate.