How do you organise a space conference? Planet.

Eleven students from the Imperial College Students for the Exploration and Development of Space society (shortened to ICSEDS for obvious reasons) attended the National Student Space Conference 2013 at the University of Bristol last weekend.

The conference is organised every year by UKSEDS, the UK’s national student space society, features talks, a careers fair, and lots of drinking, drawing students from all over the country.

Imperial students chatted to pioneering engineer Alan Bond, the man behind the Skylon space plane, and Dr David Parker, the CEO of the UK Space Agency, as well as representatives from Astrium, Reaction Engines, and SciSys.

In an effort to dispel their reputations as dull space geeks, UKSEDS organised a networking reception with copious amounts of free wine donated by the Royal Astronomical Society, followed by a 25th anniversary boat party featuring plenty of cringe-worthy just-barely-space-related music.

UKSEDS’ annual general meeting saw the election of four Imperial students to the national organising committee, Andy Lamb (1st year Physicist), Zoë Versey (4th year Aero), and TeeJay Taiwo (2nd year Aero), Joseph Dudley (1st year Aero) become Treasurer, Events Officer, Projects Officer, and Membership Officer respectively, making Imperial the most represented university on the committee. Joseph Dudley, Vice-Chair of ICSEDS said “Imperial had one of the highest turnouts at the conference, we were the only branch to have a poster, and we got four people elected to the national committee. A really great result, and a tribute to the dedication of ICSEDS’ members.”

In addition to dominating UKSEDS’ committee, ICSEDS has plans to become the hub for a London based SEDS group that will feature collaboration with groups at Kingston, UCL, and KCL, as well as the British Interplanetary Society whose headquarters are in Vauxhall.

ICSEDS is open to anyone interested in space. Current projects include high-powered model rocketry, high altitude ballooning, and design of a ramjet engine. It gives you the chance to learn new skills working on hands-on projects, and to meet other space nuts/valuable industry contacts at awesome space events. ICSEDS and UKSEDS are part of a global SEDS network that started at MIT in 1980 and features many prominent space figures as alumni. For more information on projects and membership visit: http://union.ic.ac.uk/guilds/icseds