SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Wildcat Rocketry student club is making its mark as they participate in NASA’s Student Launch project—a nine-month challenge that tasks student teams from across the U.S. to design, build, and launch high-powered rockets with scientific or engineering payloads. This hands-on, research-based engineering activity culminates in a final launch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and attracts participants from universities, colleges, and even K-12 schools nationwide.
 
SUNY Poly’s interdisciplinary group of students represents the fields of Mechanical Engineering (ME), Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. Working under the guidance of faculty mentors Dr. Aarthi Sekaran, Dr. Jiayue Shen, and Dr. Priyangshu Sen, the senior students are using this project as the foundation for their yearlong capstone. Given the interest across campus, they’ve also established a student club, Wildcat Rocketry, to allow anyone interested in aerospace engineering to join their efforts.
 
The journey started over the summer with a small group of ME students—Lucas Pratt, Mijlan Mandic, and Paul Zemanek—along with Dr. Sekaran, as they laid the groundwork for the technical proposal required by NASA. Once the fall semester began, the team grew to include more students and disciplines. Their hard work paid off when NASA accepted the team’s technical proposal, officially inviting SUNY Poly to continue designing and building their rocket.
 
The team is actively seeking partnerships with local organizations and industries to support their efforts, from building the rocket to funding travel to Alabama for the final launch.
 
In addition to campus support, the team has connected with the Upstate Research Rocketry Group (URRG), a nonprofit dedicated to educational and research aspects of amateur rocketry. The group has provided mentorship and a test site in Potter, NY, where the team will test both subscale and full-size rockets. Recently, Wildcat Rocketry joined URRG at their annual picnic, launching low-powered rockets as they prepared for the larger tests to come.
 
To view WKTV’s coverage of the team, click here.