News > 2012 > HEC Montréal and the ÉTS to host the International Space University’s intensive summer program in 2014

HEC Montréal and the ÉTS to host the International Space University’s intensive summer program in 2014

         

March 2, 2012

HEC Montréal and the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) are pleased to announce that they will be hosting the 2014 edition of the Space Studies Program (SSP) for the International Space University (ISU), a nine-week course to run from June 9 to August 8, 2014. ISU President Walter Peeters made the announcement following a Montréal visit by three ISU representatives in late January, the final phase in the selection process.

Some 120 graduate and post-graduate students and professionals from every aerospace-related discipline from some thirty different countries, 25 ISU professors and a similar number of acclaimed speakers will be coming to Montréal for this prestigious program.

The ISU, the main campus of which is located in Strasbourg, France, has offered this intensive program in a different city every summer since 1988. In summer 2012, the program hosts will be the Florida Institute of Technology, in Melbourne, Florida, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center. In 2013, the program will be offered at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, in São José dos Campos, Brazil, the headquarters of aviation company Embraer. The 2014 edition will be the third time that this major event has been held in Canada, after Toronto in 1990 and Vancouver in 2005.

The ISU offers a unique interdisciplinary education in an intercultural, international environment. The seven disciplines in which it specializes are:   

For SSP 2014, HEC Montréal will mainly be hosting workshops in the non-technical disciplines covered by the program, i.e. space law and policy, space management and business and space and society. Lectures open to the public will also be given at the School.

HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry says: “HEC Montréal is proud to collaborate with the ISU in this major endeavour. We want program participants to benefit from the School’s expertise in economic space sector analysis, knowledge management and management of innovation.”

Angie Bukley, ISU Dean, is delighted that the event is coming to Montréal: “The opportunity to convene the SSP in Montréal is something we’ve long awaited. With well over 400 ISU alumni, a well-established ISU scholarship foundation for Canadians, a dozen ISU faculty members, and the strong support of the Canadian Space Agency, Canada as a country is among the strongest of ISU supporters across the board. Montréal as a venue is culturally rich and will offer a plethora of opportunities for our participants.”

 

Ties between HEC Montréal and the ISU

It is interesting to note that HEC Montréal already has close ties with the ISU, mainly through two of its members: Lucy Stojak, Co-ordinator of the Summer School on Management of Creativity, organized by the School’s MosaiC group, and Professor Patrick Cohendet.

Ms. Stojak is a lawyer specializing in space law. She has been an elected member of the ISU Academic Council and a faculty member since 1994. She co-directed the Department of Space Law and Policy from 1989 to 2000, and again in 2007 and 2008. She was also the first Director of the Space Studies Program (SSP), a role she held for seven years.

Professor Cohendet was Vice-President, International Affairs at the Université Louis-Pasteur (today the Université de Strasbourg), when it hosted the SSP program in 1989. From that year until 2001, as well as in 2007 and 2008, he directed or co-directed the ISU Space Management and Business Department. He was also thesis director for the first joint doctorate awarded jointly by the ISU and the Université Louis-Pasteur, which focused on knowledge management in Chinese manufacturing. Like Ms. Stojak, he has been on the ISU faculty since 1994.

 

About the ISU

The International Space University is a non-profit organization that offers graduate and post-graduate training to future leaders in the world space community. In addition to the annual intensive Space Studies Program (SSP), the ISU offers two Masters (MSc) programs, one in space studies and the other in space management, along with an EMBA and various short programs. In 2011, the ISU launched a new summer program in the Southern Hemisphere, in collaboration with the University of South Australia. The ISU has trained more than 3,000 graduates from 100 countries since it was created in 1987.