Bradford Students Win International Satellite Engineering Competition

University team achieves global recognition in satellite technology challenge

Students from the University of Bradford have been named among the global winners of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Student Grand Challenge, an international competition focused on satellite engineering. The Bradford team is the only UK group to have been selected as a winner in the history of the challenge, which invites university teams worldwide to design and build satellite payloads addressing real-world issues through space technology.

Competition and project details

The IEEE GRSS Student Grand Challenge evaluates multidisciplinary student teams on their ability to develop innovative satellite payloads. The Bradford team’s project, called BRADFORD-RFI-1, targets the issue of radio-frequency interference (RFI) affecting Earth-observation satellites. RFI, caused by human-made signals, can distort satellite data used to monitor climate change, sea ice, soil moisture, ocean temperatures, and extreme weather patterns.

The team is designing a compact PocketQube satellite to detect and analyse interference within a protected radio spectrum band (1.401 to 1.426 GHz) used by major international Earth-observation missions. By identifying sources and patterns of interference, the project aims to help safeguard the accuracy of satellite measurements critical for environmental monitoring and policy-making.

Team composition and support

The 12-member student team is based in the School of Computing and Engineering and includes expertise in satellite engineering, computing, mechanical engineering, management, law, and international business. They receive guidance from academic and industry advisers throughout the project.

• Zahid Hasan Shovon, student team leader, expressed enthusiasm about representing the UK and the university on a global platform and highlighted the team’s goal of delivering a flight-grade satellite payload within the project timeline.
• Assistant Professor Vuong Mai, academic adviser, emphasised the importance of accurate Earth-observation data for climate and environmental decisions and the project’s role in protecting this data from interference.
• Professor Raed Abd-Alhameed, chief academic adviser, noted the technical challenges involved in detecting interference from a compact satellite and stressed the focus on rigorous engineering to produce a credible flight-grade payload.

Funding and future plans

As part of their award, the Bradford team will receive $10,000 in seed funding to develop a flight-ready satellite payload and an additional $2,000 to support their presentation at the 2027 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), a leading conference in Earth observation.

The project will progress through a full professional development cycle, including design reviews, engineering, testing, and ultimately launch and in-orbit operation. The team aims to apply artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques to the satellite data, contributing to Bradford’s growing focus on space-enabled AI technologies.

Strategic significance

This achievement reflects the University of Bradford’s strategic emphasis on student-led, research-driven innovation addressing global environmental challenges. It demonstrates the university’s strengths in research, innovation, and widening access to high-impact fields, while preparing graduates with the skills and ambition to compete at international levels.