This Internationally branded and Nationally Integrated Symposium is the culmination of many combined efforts of Aerospace stakeholders in the country, and is the third such Symposium in the format as originally envisaged by the Department of Science and Technology two years ago, and is starting to mature as a true Aerospace Symposium. What has been done principally in the last year was to combine the resources throughout the country to achieve a single Symposium / Conference covering a broad spectrum of Aeronautical subject matter. The overall theme for this year's was dubbed as Aerospace Technology: Enhancing our Partnerships, this theme intended to show everybody’s commitment to integrate Aerospace activities in the Country.

The Symposium as a strategy is now being branded as IASSA, with the objective of ensuring yearly continuity and that it become a well known annual event and to establish it in the class of conferences such as for example ICAS (International Council for the Aeronautical Sciences). It is planned for the following years to start introducing peer reviewed papers as part of the process of selection of technical papers, as currently engineers, scientists, technologists  involved in Aerospace in South Africa do not have the opportunities to publish their work other than within their own environments or by submission to other International Symposia. This progression has the potential to re-establish South African based Aerospace Journals as well as providing a platform to have more success in publishing Internationally which can result in collaborative work opportunities with International Institutions.

The organisers trust that the Symposium has so far lived up to everybody’s expectations in terms of the selection of subject matter and the quality thereof, and gauging by the number of delegates of over 250 it appears that there is significant interest and shows vibrance to our small Aerospace community. As a footnote, the organisers expected less than 200 delegates initially, but as it would happen the numbers increased dramatically in the last week.

The Minister of Science and Technology Hon Naledi Pandor was on hand to provide a very insightful opening speech covering various R&D subjects and notably being happy with International participation and integration of European 7th Framework Projects.

For a full rendition of her speech, visit  http://www.dst.gov.za/address-by-minister-naledi-pandor-mp-at-the-international-aerospace-symposium-of-south-africa

As we need to develop our young cadres in the field of Aerospace and related subjects, a key feature of this Symposium was to provide opportunities for students to partake in the Symposium as delegates as well as speakers to provide them with the necessary experience in presenting their subjects in front of audiences,  very valuable for their future engagement in the real world. The last day of the Symposium was primarily set aside for their presentations, and going by the interest from the audience and the depth of the subject matter a very succesful outcome.

Pictured with Hon Minister Pandor are

 the Students who took part in the Symposium

 

The intention is to hold this event alternating between various locations in the country to allow participation and organisation to be done in other areas where there are Aerospace centres of activity. For now the host venues will be Gauteng & the Western Cape, thus for 2010 the Symposium will be held in the Cape region, the planning of which has already started.