HP Rocket Propulsion Lab
An amateur rocketry team I founded in high school and my first experience with real engineering.
18' - 20'
* This details the building of HPRPL as an organization and smaller scrap projects. See Project Supersonic and L1 Certification for other info. Some projects missing documentation. Thank you Alexander Sanducu and Zachariah Clark for guiding me in everything rocket related. *
SOLIDWORKS
Circuitry
3D Printing
Arduino
Management
Operations
Contribution |
I founded the team, growing it to around 40 members - 1/10th of the school. I trained members to proficiency in basic physics principles, SOLIDWORKS, and simulation software. I organized the team such that skills could be passed down as the most experienced members left year after year, allowing the team to sustainably live on. I led the team to achieve multiple high power certifications and flight of a supersonic rocket. I created a team culture that was open and allowed members to thrive. |
Improvement |
Though it's cool how many people we got interested in the club, if I had a redo, I would restrict membership to a small team. It sounds conterintuitive to have less people, not more, so let me explain. This idea is influenced by 2 factors unique to student teams. A) HPRPL is no one's sole responsibility - students have other classes, clubs, etc. B) People join the team largely skilless. Regarding problem A, it was very bothersome to coordinate who was coming to each meeting especially since our location was off-campus. Since we had a fixed agenda every time, it was crucial that the right people came to get the job done and so no one was hanging around doing nothing. Having a small, elite team would concentrate more responsibility on less members, allowing members to priotize HPRPL over other things. For problem B, the original solution was to just train everyone. However, to do that effectively, it meant training for about a semester before everyone was able to be on the same page. A smaller team would mean higher quality training be and more time engineering. There's many things I'd change, but this stands out first and foremost. |
Material |