Baltimore , Maryland
June 25, 2023
June 25, 2023
June 28, 2023
Aerospace Division (AERO)
10
10.18260/1-2--43432
https://peer.asee.org/43432
177
I am currently a senior in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University. I have worked as an intern at NASA KSC for the past 2 summers (2021/2022) for the Launch Services Program verifying contractor launch vehicle engine performance, and will start full-time in summer 2023 as a propulsion engineer at SpaceX. During my time at Iowa State, I have been highly involved with the Cyclone Rocketry team, leading the propulsion team during the 2021-2022 academic year, and serving as the Vice President of the club during the 2022-2023 school year.
Dr. Benjamin Ahn is an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University in the Department of Engineering Education.
As the focus of the aerospace industry shifts toward the space sector, increasing numbers of college students across the country are searching for ways to gain practical, hands-on experience in designing, manufacturing, and testing rockets. Student-led clubs are one way for students to obtain that experience. This paper highlights one engineering club at Iowa State University (a Midwestern university in the U.S.), the Cyclone Rocketry club, and focuses specifically on the club’s propulsion team. The paper presents the propulsion team’s efforts to pioneer new rocket technologies, create several powerful rocket motors, and collaborate with the university’s aerospace engineering faculty to create supplementary teaching materials for a new rocket propulsion course. Furthermore, the paper describes lessons learned and provides recommendations for starting and running a propulsion team in a university setting. The paper benefits college students interested in creating similar student-led rocket clubs in their respective universities and engineering faculty members interested in collaborating with such clubs to introduce real-world problems and demonstrations in their rocketry courses.
Blocker, J. M., & Ahn, B. (2023, June), Lessons Learned from Starting a Student-Led Rocket Club and the Collaborative Effort between the Club and a Rocket Course Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43432
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