Research, innovation and education across the world!
Introduction
Helping people is an important aspect of what we do. At SES, we are committing our businesses in supporting education and science projects, being a positive force by advancing crucial technologies and fields of research. We do this in several ways, including; donating bandwidth to remote reach research stations or partnering with universities such as the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For instance, The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station, the Project Loon as well as our partnerships with several Universities, are a few of our examples to our contribution to creating a sustainable world.
The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station
We often talk about the hard to reach, remote areas of the planet and the ability of our satellites functionality in reaching these. Antarctica is most certainly one of these places. It’s our world's most remote continent with South America approximately 1000km away and separated from the rest of the world by the” Drake passage”. In this lonely part of the world, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station is located.
The research station is designed as a “zero emissions” facility. This means that sustainable technologies such as renewable wind and solar energy and passive building technologies are used to make the structure free from emissions. We contribute to the station by donating bandwidth to the International Polar Foundation that enables the station to communicate via satellite. We also designed the satellite communications infrastructure as well as the counter hub station in the UK, thus enabling the scientists of the station to instantly communicate and share discoveries with the mainland.
The success of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica demonstrates how climate challenges can be tackled through goodwill and collaboration between civil society, business and governments. You can read more about the station here.
Project Loon
The technology behind Project Loon is stratospheric balloons deployed 20km up in the air. These balloons have the capability to support the people below with 4G/LTE connectivity regardless of the infrastructure situation on the ground.
In 2017 “El Nino” caused floods in Puerto Rico and the need for fast and reliable communication and infrastructure to support institutions and recovering communities was crucial.
SES played a key role in bringing 4G/LTE connectivity to the disaster-affected parts of Puerto Rico since our high through-put and fibre-like satellite connectivity service - which is provided via our Medium Earth Orbit satellite network - helped power the project and connectivity restoration efforts.
Universities
Being part of the satellite industry as well as a technologically advanced business area means that we place high importance on the areas of science and research. To this extent, we have partnerships with leading universities located all over the world and we aim to help the academic world in innovation and the creation of new technical capabilities that advance solutions for the satellite business.
With SES’s headquarters located in Luxembourg, we have created close partnerships with several universities, institutes and faculties in the country. Since 2017 we have had a deep partnership with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). An important area of the partnership is to transform existing research into innovative applications for the satellite industry in the form of commercial products and services for the satellite communications business.
In addition, we collaborate with the Center for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) and the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF), at the University of Luxembourg. Our cooperation agreement with Sacred Heart University Luxembourg provides both educational services for SES employees and student visits.
Internationally, our university partnerships include our funding for a scholarship programme at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France, to support students studying advanced space applications. The scholarship’s fund for students from the African School of Economics (ASE), in Benin, to attend Princeton University and in the US, we support to the master’s programme, at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
Our academic partners include:
• Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
• Center for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg
• The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF) at the University of Luxembourg
• Jack Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University, Luxembourg
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• The Lycée Technique d’Esch, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
• The International Space University, Strasbourg France
• The University Politechnica, Bucharest Romania
• The Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey US
• Princeton University, Princeton US
• The African School of Economics (ASE), Abomey-Calavi Benin
By educating the youth and helping in important research projects, SES enriches the world in many ways. Research, innovation and education across the globe should always keep evolving. We are here to contribute to that.
