Event Manager
Brenda Ulate
Brenda has a degree in law from the University of Costa Rica, with this institution she has collaborated in multiple national and international conferences, as well as having provided assistance in investigations.
In the past, Brenda did an internship at the Central American Court of Justice (Legal Body of the Central American Integration System), where she performed an investigation of the Principles of Public International Law and Community Law. Also, she did an internship in the Constitutional Court of Costa Rica, where her boss was the current President of the Judiciary of Costa Rica, she was responsible for the resolution of multiple cases. Now, she was accepted to an internship at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Legal Body of the Organization of American States).
Brenda is currently the National Contact Point of Contact of the Space Generation Advisory Council in Costa Rica since 2017 and a member of the Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space.
This year she made his first presentation about Aerospace Law at the 69th International Astronautical Congress, it was concerning the fundamental pillars to create a Central American Space Agency.
Co-Manager
Vivian Calderón
Vivian is a professional in International Relations, works in Central American Association for Aeronautics and Space (ACAE) since 2016 and is a youth leader.
Vivian is currently vice president of youth of a political party (Partido Liberación Nacional), participated in the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico and in the 3th China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum 2017 in Wuhan, China. In April 2018, Vivian participated at the launch of SpaceX Falcon 9, in NASA Kennedy Space Center, that would place the first Central American Satellite (Batsú CS1) in the International Space Station (ISS).
Support Team
Sebastián Herrera Sánchez
Sebastián is an undergraduate physics student at the University of Costa Rica. He is an honorable mention winner in the 2016 Iberoamerican Physics Olympiad, held in Carmelo, Uruguay, and 2017 International Physics Olympiad, in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Sebastián co-created in 2018 the Yo Impulso Foundation, a nonprofit organization that intends to support young Costa Rican talent in academics, sports, and arts. is an undergraduate physics student at the University of Costa Rica. He is an honorable mention winner in the 2016 Iberoamerican Physics Olympiad, held in Carmelo, Uruguay, and 2017 International Physics Olympiad, in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Sebastián co-created in 2018 the Yo Impulso Foundation, a nonprofit organization that intends to support young Costa Rican talent in academics, sports and arts.
Communication Team
Thamara Montero
Thamara is in her first year at the University Of Costa Rica, joined the Aerospace Engineering Group (GIA), as a student of Electrical Engineering she started working on the telemetry and the fuselages sections of GIA. During her first year at GIA she got certified in Level 2 High Power Rocketry from Tripoli Rocketry Association and joined Reti-Sat, the first satellite being developed on UCR. Thanks to her work in Reti-Sat she and the team went to Guadalajara, Mexico to represent Costa Rica at 5th Pre-Mission Idea Contest Regional, where they won and went to 5th Pre-Mission Idea Contest held in Rome, Italy, during the 5th UNISEC Global Meeting. During 2018 she led team CUSUCO, GIA’s first attempt at ARLISS (A Rocket Launch for International Students ) held by Aeropac and UNISEC at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA, her team developed an autonomous rover. At the end of 2018 she joined the CA-SGAC team that is organizing the 1st CA-SGAC Workshop, as part of the support team.
Sofía María Quesada Marín
Sofia was born on March 24, 1991 in Cartago, Costa Rica. Graduated from Business Administration of the American University (UAM), she has been working for the private sector in Costa Rica for 9 years. Member also of non-governmental organizations that seek to promote and activate entrepreneurship programs in the province of Cartago.
Alisson Navarro Campos
Alisson is a baccalaureate student in electrical engineering at the University of Costa Rica. Since 2015, she has been involved in projects that encourage the participation of women in science and technology. He has participated in volunteering in which technological solutions to social problems are sought. Its main interests are energy systems and industrial maintenance.
Delegates Team:
Moacir Fonseca Becker
Moacir holds a bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Costa Rica. He also completed the 2018 Space Studies Program, with a focus on space business and management, from the International Space University in Delft, Netherlands. His academic and research interests reside in the aerospace robotics field; more specifically, he’s interested in control and dynamics. Back in 2016, his experiment idea was selected to participate in the 3rd UNOOSA’s DropTES campaign; in this opportunity, he studied the dynamical behavior of two robotic arms under artificial gravity and microgravity conditions. He’s been present as a speaker in international conferences such as the 69th International Astronautical Congress and the United Nations Workshop on Human Space Technology. As of now, he’s looking forward to beginning his postgraduate studies in aerospace engineering.
Valeria Alfaro Chavarría
Valeria is a mechanical engineering student from Universidad de Costa Rica. She is a member of the Aeroespace Group of the university she assists, otherwise, she is currently holding a leadership position in a youth group of a church. Valeria has always been passionate about cosmology and space studies, including empowering women in the engineering area.
Andres Arias Corrales
Andres is an Electromechanical Engineering student at the –Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR) in Cartago, Costa Rica. He’s passionate by Science and Technology. He had participated in different programs in the Aerospace area, as 2015 UCR Aerospace Camp in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and 2016 United Space School in Houston, USA. He is currently a member of the Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space (ACAE) and part of the organizing committee of the first Central America Space Generation Workshop. His goal is to develop his postgraduate career in Aerospace Engineering with an emphasis on Spacecraft Propulsion.
Program Team
Gustavo Fonseca
Gustavo is a young engineer student from Costa Rica. He studied two undergraduate majors: Electrical and Mechanical engineering, at the University of Costa Rica. He has been part of the Aerospace Engineering Group of the University of Costa Rica in robotics, small satellites, and amateur rocketry projects. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space (ACAE), participating in the development of the first Central American satellite: Proyecto Irazu. He has more than 6 research publications related to small satellites and space education; also he has international academic experience (International Space University alumni, SH-SSP16).
He has more than 5 years of professional experience in cleanroom manufacturing systems (electronics and medical devices industry). Currently working as an Automation Engineer for Microvention-Terumo, implementing the first Automated Guided Vehicles of Costa Rica, as well as project manager for the construction of a new 1000-people ISO Class 7 cleanroom.
Gustavo has been passionate about space since childhood, his goal is to continue studying a postgraduate degree abroad in Aerospace Engineering with an emphasis on autonomous robotics and space exploration, and be part of the group of professionals who wants to develop the space industry in the Central American region.
Esteban Martínez
Estaban is an electronic engineer who is currently pursuing MSc in Embedded Systems at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (TEC) in San Jose, Costa Rica. His main interest and main research are the Store & Forward systems for remote sensing in small satellites as CubeSats. In the Space Systems Laboratory (SETEC-Lab), he worked as the telecommunications engineer in the Irazú Project, the first satellite in Central America that aims to monitor the carbon dioxide fixation in Costa Rica’s forests. After integrating and long-distance testing of the communications subsystems of the flight and ground segments, he went to the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan to perform the satellite environmental tests and get the certification for the ISS launch with JAXA.
He was part of the International Workshop of Lean Satellite (IWLS) in 2018 organized by Kyutech, where he had the opportunity of participating in the First Ground Station Operation Workshop for the BIRDS project, consisting of a ground station network with more than 13 countries involved.
In collaboration with George Washington University (GWU) and TEC, he is working on the GW-CubeSat secondary mission: contribute to the preservation of the biodiversity and hydrological equilibrium of the Costa Rican wetlands by improving their remote sensing network.
Esteban is a space enthusiast, and with his research in the field of telecommunications, he hopes to enable universities, developing countries, and smaller organizations to partake in the exploration of space.
Adrián Trejos Calderón
Adrián is a Systems Engineer. Professional in engineering systems. Enthusiastic about new technologies like the use of free software, security of information and the proper use of technologies
With extensive experience in database administration, systems programming, and information security. Selective and innovative criteria, with a taste for impact results, quality, and productivity.
In different highways of the Latin American region, through the development of installation processes, maintenance, information management and continuity of service. Supervision of work teams, implement measures for information security and cybersecurity.
Logistics Team:
Stephanie Rodríguez Vargas
Stephanie is a Physics and Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Costa Rica, and there she is working on a collaborative project in a digital fabrication laboratory helping other students and entrepreneurs to use different technologies for prototype projects. She is an active member of the Aerospace Engineering Group at the same University. In this group she was the coordinator of the team in charge of the rockets manufacture, also she was part of the staff of the second aerospace camp held at the university. In 2016 she became in the first Latin American woman to obtain Level 2 in High Power Rocketry given by Tripoli Rocketry Association, allowing her to operate small sounding rockets. Currently works in the development of a small satellite to monitor the red tide blooming in Central American coast. In 2017, this project was presented in the framework of the “5thUniversity Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC) Global Meeting”, where they earned the first place in the local Latin American competition, this allowed them to present the project in the main event. Also, she was speaker in Bremen, Germany at the 69thInternational Astronautical Congress in the 25thIAA Symposium on Small Satellites Missions.
Leslie Patricia Quinde Cobos
Leslie is an electrical engineer and Master’s student at Universidad de Costa Rica. Since 2017, she has worked as an IEEE member in the Universidad de Costa Rica Student Branch. She helped found the ‘Engineering in Medicine and Biology Student Chapter’ or EMB as Chair and is part of IEEE’s Affinity Group ‘Women in Engineering’, working to motivate and empower women to study and persevere in STEM careers. She is a member of the Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems Laboratory or PRIS-Lab, where she worked her graduation project ‘Design, Implementation, and validation of an algorithm for cancer cell tracking using HMM for samples obtained by Bright field microscopy’. As part of the Aerospatial Engineering Group at Universidad de Costa Rica, she has participated in ARLISS 2018 competition and is certified in level 1 and 2 of rocketry with TRIPOLI.
Luis Jimenez
Luis is a physics student at the University Of Costa Rica. During his time studying he’s been a research assistant at the Autonomous Robots and Cognitive Systems Laboratory (Arcos lab) hosted at the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Costa Rica.
Also, he is an active member of the Central American Association for Aeronautics and Space (ACAE) where he is involved in the Super Nova Kids Program. His main interests are space robotics, liquid fuel engines, among other things.
Local Organizing Committee:
Dayanna Vargas
Dayanna is an international baccalaureate student and next year she will study mechanical engineering at the University of Costa Rica. Her main interest is the design of spacecraft, so she wants to study aerospace engineering in the future.
Ezequiel Pérez
Ezequiel studied law at the Universidad Escuela Libre de Derecho in Costa Rica. He currently works as an advisor in the Costa Rican Congress and as a Fraud Investigator for a multinational enterprise, assessing matters of Space Law Regulation and International Law. In the summer of 2013, he earned a Certificate in Law from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the SGW Local Partnership group in 2018 providing his experience in e-commerce, social responsibility, and networking.
Pável Valverde Marín
Pavel is a political scientist and currently studying electrical engineering, both at Universidad de Costa Rica, also is a Schneider Electric Certified Specialist in Energy Efficiency. He has experience as research assistant in the Information and Knowledge Society Program at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Actually labors at the Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica, and work in research of digital government and educational engineering.
