RMIT Team Wins Technical Excellence Award At Australian Universities Rocket Competition

Study in Australia: The Australian Youth Aerospace Association (AYAA) organizes the annual Australian Universities Rocket Competition every year. In this year's competition, the RMIT team was placed in second position.

Every year, the Australian Youth Aerospace Association (AYAA) in collaboration with its event stakeholders organizes the Australian Universities Rocket Competition. This competition requires participating universities to design, build and launch a scientific rocket which is high-powered with a target height of 5,000ft or 10,000ft.

RMIT team this year is called 2024 Aurora V Team, they called themselves HIVE. The team created a rocket of an altitude of 10,000ft which could fly a 2kg cube satellite. Pat Underwood led the team. Pat graduated with a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering at RMIT.

“We started with no experience and held our own on a national stage, and not only came runners up but also won the Award for Technical Excellence. I don’t think this achievement can be overstated. Before this competition, as a team we had next to no experience with high-powered rocketry. We had five key subsystems within the rocket: Avionics, Structures, Recovery, Aerobrakes, and Payload. Each team had roughly an even split of the 30 total members within the team. Members were selected based on their degrees and their areas of interest," he said.

“I developed the systems engineering approach – which is roughly equivalent to a project management or business plan but for engineering – that would take a team of new rocketeers to compete at the highest level in Australia. The plan was rigorous, required a lot of dedication, and would really push us to the next level. I’m so glad that I can say my team achieved exactly that. We recruited and developed a team of absolute superstars and began to develop five rockets in the Aurora V program (Aurora I to V), with each rocket iteratively built on the one previous one, getting bigger, faster, and better until we arrived at our final rocket," he added.

RMIT’s Graduation Ceremony At Marvel Stadium

Around 9,000 students graduated from RMIT University this year. The Governor of Victoria, Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC also joined them at the Marvel Stadium where the university held its graduation ceremony.

“Among the great outcomes of your education are that you will consider the evidence for an assertion; understand competing views but expect that evidence, persuasion and debate are good ways to articulate and resolve differences; recognise the broad dimensions of a changing world and be prepared to engage with them (not attempt to hide from or ignore them). Whatever your technical and professional knowledge and skills, you are now prepared to meet and shape your future, not be overwhelmed by it,” the Governor said.

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