Space Foundation Offers Its First New Generation Webinar

The Space Foundation held its first webinar on June 28 targeted at New Generation participants. The program was part of the Space Foundation’s New Generation Initiatives, which provide a forum for young space professionals to learn about the business and advance their careers through mentoring, networking and professional growth opportunities.

There were more than 30 participants for the webinar — Managing a World of Complexity: The Need for Simplicity and Elegance, featuring Dr. Pete McQuade and Dr. Jon Wade, both of the Stevens Institute of Technology, based in New Jersey.

The discussion provided a definition of complexity and how it differs from “complication” and “uncertainty,” and included recommendations for addressing complexity.

Dr. Wade noted his belief that younger generations often have a more intuitive sense of complex systems, because they try to understand how a system is likely to behave rather than trying to analyze the various components that go into the system. He closed the presentation with advice about designing for simplicity to ensure that systems are only as complex as they need to be, rather than being complex due to an inability to focus on what is important.

The webinar included a drawing for complimentary registration to the Space Foundation’s 30th Space Symposium, to be held May 19-22, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The winner was Justin Park, a graduate of International Space University who co-founded a space education company called Intergalactic Education, based in Zug, Switzerland.

See more about Space Foundation New Generation Initiatives here.