A rocket built by a team of students recently placed first in the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium’s Collegiate Rocket Launch competition. Team members and supporters of the project with their winning rocket are (left to right): Kathryn (Kate) Lenz, Jens Carter, David Juckem, Shawn Schumacher, Maddison Sauer and Eric McDaniel.
The rocketry students from University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, a campus of UW Oshkosh, received the top score in a spring competition between 13 colleges and universities and has been awarded a $3,000 prize. This is a repeat of their 2017 win in this statewide rocket launch competition. A team from UW-Washington County earned second place with UW-Platteville taking third place.
The competition was part of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium’s (WSGC) Collegiate Rocketry program, which gives students the opportunity to develop their engineering and design skills through direct application. Members of the UWFox Rocketeers are students Jens Carter, Appleton; Kathyrn (Kate) Lenz, Potter; Eric McDaniel, Appleton; and Shawn Schumacher, New London. The faculty advisor is Warren Vaz, Ph.D., engineering professor, and the industry mentor is David Juckem, who is also a student at UW-Fox Valley. Students on the team are pursuing an engineering degree through the UW-Platteville Collaborative Engineering Program located on the UW-Fox Valley campus.
Preparing for the competition, the student teams must design, construct and fly a high-power rocket that demonstrates a process to generate electric power during the flight. But, it’s more than just building the rocket. Participating students must also accurately predict the flight performance and recover the rocket safely and in flyable condition to achieve top scores.
“It continues to be exciting that the students from the UW-Platteville Fox Valley Collaborative Engineering Program are participating in one of these marvelous programs that are funded by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium,” said Martin Rudd, UW Oshkosh assistant chancellor for access campuses. “The challenges of the project are the types of problem solving methodologies that we expect our graduates to demonstrate and that are woven into our pedagogies in both curricular and extra-curricular activities. I congratulate them, and Dr. Vaz, on this first place success.”
The WSGC is a member institution of the national network of Space Grant Consortia funded by NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship program. UW-Fox Valley has been a member of the WSGC since 2005. During the past 13 years, student teams on campus have participated in the Tethered Aerostat Program, which challenges students to launch research platforms in a near-surface environment, and the Elijah High-Altitude Balloon Project, which allows students to fly science experiments in a near-space environment.
The mission of WSGC is to use the excitement and vision of space and aerospace science to equip the citizens of Wisconsin with the math, science and technology tools they need to thrive in the 21st century. The organization is dedicated to helping provide the tools, connections and resources needed to make the aerospace community in the state of Wisconsin thrive and grow.
For more information about UW-Fox Valley visit the website www.uwfox.uwc.edu or call (920) 832-2600.
Information about the WSGC program is available online at www.spacegrant.carthage.edu.
WSGC will be hosting the Wisconsin Space Conference at UW-Fox Valley on Aug. 10, 2018. Details and registration available online.
Contact
Media Inquiries: Laurie Krasin
920-929-1108
laurie.krasin@uwc.edu