Despite their busy schedules, our students often manage to find time in between their classes and research to do something fun. And sometimes that fun means actual rocket science. In 2024, Chidinma Ezugwu, one of our PhD students in Computational Mathematics, began volunteering with NC A&T’s Aggie Rocketry Team, which has been selected to participate in NASA’s 2025 Student Launch Challenge. The competition challenges U.S. student teams to design, build, test, and launch a high-powered rocket carrying a scientific or engineering payload. Chidinma provided assistance in computing and modeling the rocket’s velocity in three dimensions using simulated IMU data. On the weekend of March 15th and 16th, the team travelled to a Bayboro launch site to test-launch out rocket. After months of hard work, the team was thrilled to pull off a successful launch. To find out more about NASA’s Student Launch Challenge click here.
