Outreach honour for USW’s Rocketry Society

The University of South Wales (USW) Rocketry Society has been recognised for the work it does in developing the next generation of space engineers.

At the Mach-23 Rocketry Competition held at Machrihanish Air Base in Campbeltown, Scotland, the USW team won the Best Outreach award, beating competition from 11 other universities.

The team was recognised for its outreach activities during 2022-2023, promoting STEM and the work on space engineering development in Wales.

During the year the team engaged with more than 25 schools and three Further Education colleges, and took part in a number of events organised by local authorities and other institutions. This included direct engagement with nearly 500 students through workshops, and more than 1,500 more during events, such as exhibitions.

The Rocketry Team, which has been running since 2018, is student-led, with support from Senior Lecturer Dr Leshan Uggalla and Dr Phil Charlesworth, who is a visiting professor at USW and the technical lead for the Rocketry Society.

“We’re delighted to have been honoured at the Mach-23 event for the work we do to engage the potential specialists of the future and get them interested in the space industry,” said Dr Uggalla.

“What we have found from these outreach sessions is that many of the pupils don’t realise that there is more opportunities in space sector than just being an astronaut, the industry needs experts in all sorts of STEM disciplines, such as electronics, mechanics, telecommunications, maths, computing, and data science, and, also, from many other subjects outside the STEM fields.

“Being able to have the USW students involved in the outreach shows the younger pupils that people just like them are already studying to do these jobs, and they can follow in their footsteps.”

Dr Charlesworth added: "Our students have worked hard to inspire the next generation of rocket scientists. They thoroughly deserve this award."

A spokesperson for the Rocketry team added: “At the competition, we were able to launch our rocket to 800 metres and successfully recover all parts of the rocket. Our solar-powered payload completed its mission and was able to broadcast live altitude and telemetry data to our ground station throughout the launch.

“We were also delighted to win an award for best outreach for our work with the local schools and colleges in the South Wales area.

“We are very proud of our achievements. It is mind-boggling to see how far we have come as a team, the growth of us as individuals, and how it has positively shaped the skill level of the University of South Wales Rocketry team. After all, completing such a complex project could not have been possible without each individual’s efforts and skills.

“We are so grateful to the University of South Wales for the opportunities it has provided us in the past, and we are excitedly looking forward to what the future holds.”

The team consists of Gayan Ramanayak, MRes Engineering (Hybrid Propulsion); Natcha Laethongkham - MRes Engineering (Hybrid Propulsion); Robert Tipping –BEng Electrical and Electronics Engineering; Emily Creedy – BSc Aircraft Engineering and Maintenance Systems, and Elango Nagasundaram - PhD Electronic Engineering.

The team members also thanked the management group of USW’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and Science for providing guidance and finance, colleagues Michael Bassett and Adam Jones for providing health and safety advices and assessments, academic and technical colleagues within the faculty, colleagues in the marketing and student recruitment teams; and administration, finance, procurement, hospitality, and security colleagues at USW for their continued support.