SEEI ITB Students Win Global Nominee and Local Winner Awards at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025

Bandung, stei.itb.ac.id – Another proud achievement has been attained by three students of the School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (SEEI) ITB at an international event. The three students successfully won three award categories at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025, namely:

1. Best Pitch NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025, Jakarta
2. Global Nominee and Local Winner
3. Best Use of Data Nominee NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025

This competition is a global hackathon organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with various space agencies and educational institutions around the world. The event challenges participants to develop science-, data-, and technology-based solutions to real-world issues related to Earth, space, and planetary sustainability.

Thalita Zahra Sutejo (Information Systems and Technology, 2022), together with her three teammates—Attara Majesta Ayub (Informatics Engineering, 2022), Jason Fernando (Informatics Engineering, 2022), and Daryl John Sayangbati (Mechanical Engineering, 2022)—developed a project called AIM-X (Asteroid Impact Simulation and Mitigation eXperience), an interactive simulation platform that enables users to analyze, predict, and mitigate the impact of asteroids that have the potential to strike Earth using real data from NASA.

“Through AIM-X, users can simulate various impact scenarios based on the physical parameters of asteroids such as velocity, impact angle, and minimum orbit distance. The system also calculates secondary effects such as crater size, shock waves, tsunamis, and seismic activity,” Thalita explained in an interview.

In its development, the team divided roles in a structured manner—ranging from data analysis and physics calculations, user interface design and 3D visualization, to the integration of NASA data into a web-based system. Their biggest challenge was combining scientific data with realistic physics models within a very limited time frame, while ensuring that the simulation results remained accurate and easy for users to understand.

According to Thalita, the experience of competing in an international event of this scale provided many valuable lessons. “We learned the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and how to think globally when addressing complex scientific issues. In addition, we learned how to manage projects efficiently in a short time and make data-driven decisions quickly,” she said.

Furthermore, Thalita hopes that this achievement can serve as an inspiration for SEEI ITB students and the younger generation of Indonesia to dare to innovate and contribute on a global scale.
“Competitions like the NASA Space Apps Challenge prove that with a spirit of learning, teamwork, and the courage to try new things, Indonesian students are able to compete at the world level. We want to show that the skills learned on campus can be applied in real ways to solve global problems,” she concluded.

This achievement serves as concrete evidence that collaboration and innovation by SEEI ITB students are capable of creating positive impact and bringing Indonesia’s name to the international stage.