Three-point strategy for Summer 2026 and onwards until June 2027 (expected CUBICS grant decision).

1. Prepare for & apply to CUBICS 2026 Grant

• secure partners that bring technical expertise; data sharing and/or potentially secondary payload as incentives for joining
  • currently contacting professors / research groups at UofT, difficult to get on board but expect “rock solid” commitment if they agree.
  • Several promising options are already in discussions.
• renew literature review for updated scientific value proposition. taking a look at hyperspectral imaging more broadly, expanding the scope beyond just crop residue. In anticipation of ~1U of volume, VNIR vs SWIR
• There is a re-framing of our core objectives within UTAT. Instead of building a cutting-edge payload that has novel scientific contributions, we will focus on building something that is student-doable & focused on student learning value.
  • We will not be successful in building cutting edge scientific payload without serious academic research involvement, i.e., a (team of) Profs / research labs takes charge of the payload.
  • The CUBICS grant objectives of giving university students an opportunity to “to maximize student knowledge, skills and expertise” and “increase employability” is much better aligned with UTAT SS’s capabilities and mission purpose
• The real learning value as students isn’t building something that’s perfect — instead, it is to design something reasonable and aim for perfect execution. We’ll learn the most when we close the loop of (ideate → design → fabricate → assemble → test ), finding bugs & fixing them.
• We have to be pragmatic with the best way to utilize limited resources (time & knowledge) in constructing a high-likelihood-of-success strategy.

2. Build prototypes to demonstrate minimum viable products on the way to eventual hyperspectral imaging payload

• Build a bicycle → motorcycle → car type of roadmap
• builds deep technical problem familiarity & confidence within the team & “investors” in our technical capabilities.
• Projects are clearly structured with timelines, deliverables and rubrics, and are planned on a semester-long scale. Designed to mimic undergrad engineering design courses.
• culminates with June 2027 Demo Day where we’ll showcase working engineering artifacts
• UTAT Space Systems receives hardware funding, so the expectation is we’ll demonstrate successful hardware outcomes, not just grant writing & software

3. Grow & retain talent through focused on-boarding and structured team commitment

• knowledge preservation is a major risk to a part-time volunteer undergrad team.
• Seek to develop robust & comprehensive subsystem onboarding projects which can be re-used every semester with minimal additional oversight required from leads
• shift expectation on leads to spend ≤50% of their time on onboarding & new member-related tasks. Require formal project documentation (i.e. knowledge-base articles, reports & engineering file deliverables once per semester from each subsystem cadence. Treat this as a “final report for a design course”)
• formally identify 1-2 “senior members” within a subsystem that would be soft-required to attend Systems meetings & given a larger share of technical & onboarding responsibilities
• Incentives: non-salary benefits UTAT provides includes:
  • directly funding your curiosity,
  • gain resume experience for PEY
  • democratic and egalitarian team structure/ culture
  • occasional fun stuff (socials, dinners, stickers, timbits, etc.)
  • more applied & hands on versus research which doesn’t always have tangible outcome