With Swayam in space, CoEP gains ground

Pune: When Swayam, one of the two satellites built by Indian students, was successfully launched from Sriharikota on Wednesday at 9.26am, a crowd that had gathered inside College of Engineering Pune's auditorium clapped and hugged each other.
But it was not until 11am when the first beacon (transmitted signal) was received by the ground station built in the college confirming that all the systems were up and running, that waves of joy washed over the students behind Swayam and the multitude of their supporters.The satellite was conceptualized and built by the students of the college with Rs 50 lakh funding.
"It is a great achievement for our college. We get a marginal amount of funds when compared with the national institutes. Yet Swayam is a lesson about how dedicated students, who worked on it for eight years, and a committed faculty can do wonders. Now that we have made a mark, we hope companies will help students and colleges take up such projects by routing their corporate social responsibility funds," Bhalchandra Chaudhari, deputy director, CoEP said on Wednesday.
The college was represented by M Y Khaladkar, faculty in-charge, B B Ahuja, director of CoEP and three students, Dhaval Waghulde, Abdul Sangarwala and Saurabh Barve at Sriharikota for the launch.
The entire atmosphere inside the college was one of a victory celebration with students who had gone home for the vacation and those who had graduated turning up for the telecast.
"It was emotional and electrifying for all of us. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am very happy that I was there along with the students. We were thrilled when the launch vehicle lifted off with all 20 satellites. But only when Swayam ejected from the launch vehicle and when it was announced, did we start dancing with happiness. We will organize a celebration for all students who were a part of the project soon," Khaladkar added.
The landlines in the college have not stopped ringing. "We have been getting calls since morning. The WhatsApp messages are pouring in from various quarters. This was possible only because of the students. Anil Sahasrabudhe had tears in his eyes when he heard of the launch. It was under his leadership at CoEP that the project was approved eight years ago," Sandeep Meshram, a faculty member at CoEP, said.
Sahasrabudhe, the current chairman of All India Council for Technical Education, was the director of CoEP.
The satellite has a revolution period of 90 minutes and will pass over Pune four times. Twice, the strength to transmit and receive the signal will be good and it will be average for the other two times.
A customized hardware and protocol have been designed by the students to send and receive signals via Swayam. It has been given to 10 people in different countries. The ground station will be monitored continuously by the students during every pass.
Girish Baj, a student who is part of the project, said, "The first pass over Pune was at around 11am. The satellite has been programmed to send a signal every 90 seconds. We got about six signals from the satellite which is the maximum that can happen during a particular pass. The first six bytes of data said SWAYAM and the next six bytes gave us the parameters of the satellite. Everything is fine as of now."
It will take another 10-15 days for the satellite to stabilize and reliably act as a point-to-point messenger. "We will be starting the trials from the pass at 9.30pm on Wednesday. But whatever information we receive will not be considered reliable. It will happen only after 10-15 days after which uploading and downloading of data will happen," added Baj.