SpaceVision is the largest student-organized space conference in the nation and is orchestrated by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) as the SEDS-USA annual national conference. SpaceVision is dedicated to facilitating networking between college students, professionals, and the public, and furthering the development of the organizations goals.
We are now in a time of great change for the Space Industry. At the same time as low cost access to orbit is finally on the horizon, budgets in the government sector are being cut. Many new challenges will be faced in the industry. The future of space exploration and development will hinge on the activities of the next few years. As we find ourselves at this crossroads, our generation is key to the shaping of the industry and our future. In this regard, the proposed theme for our conference bid is “Crossroads: How our generation will take us to the Space Frontier”. This theme will address the future of our industry and community, and will strive to answer the question “How will the students of today impact the space industry of tomorrow?”
SEDS started in 1980 as a joint venture between Peter Diamandis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Todd Hawley at Princeton University. The group had a simple vision which continues to serve as its underlying guiding principle today: to unite students with enthusiasm for the exploration and eventual development of space. SEDS has a central national chapter (SEDS-USA) whose elected members act as a coordinating body for over 30 chapters containing over 1200 students at various universities throughout the United States, and many international chapters such as UKSEDS and SEDS-India.
This conference is the largest and most publicized SEDS event held and models the organization’s ambition and professionalism. The SpaceVision committee seeks to raise the bar by hosting a wider variety of speakers, offering new conference events, and including non-SEDS members from colleges across the country. We hope to improve the SEDS organization by showing the world that space isn’t just for the engineers and astronauts anymore.
Previous SpaceVision Hosts:
2011 – University of Colorado, Boulder
2010 – University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
2009 – University of Arizona
2008 – Texas A&M University
2007 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2006 – University of Central Florida