Top community college students will have an opportunity to rocket into high-grade STEM education in the near future.
Terrible puns aside, the work that goes on at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, and more specifically the student-run Rocket Propulsion Lab (RPL), is nothing short of amazing.
A collaborative effort from students ranging across many engineering disciplines, the RPL has run eight missions since 2005. Students have also worked to improve existing technology by refining solid and hybrid propellants, thermal protection and composite structures as well as on-board avionics systems. They hope to be the first student led team to launch a rocket into space.
The RPL will be getting a significant boost toward achieving these goals as Base 11, a STEM workforce agency that connects “high-potential, low-resource” students to employers and academic institutions, will be partnering with the USC Viterbi School.
Participating students will join the lab, and work with the existing RPL team to develop and launch rockets in the Nevada desert. This is in addition to the summer months, where some students will take up residence at USC and work on smaller scale research projects including studying the technology behind drones.
This partnership will allow students to better reach their potential, in an environment that has made an impact on several cohorts passing through USC Viterbi.
Daniel Erwin, RPL faculty lead and chair of the USC Viterbi Department of Astronautical Engineering, had this to say on RPL and the partnership with Base 11:
"The knowledge, hands-on experience and confidence gained from RPL work has opened the doors for internships and permanent employment at rocket companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, as well as space companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. We hope that the collaboration with Base 11 will extend this opportunity to community college students as well."
Bringing top-class opportunities to students who may not have ever had the chance can lead to surprising developments. The dean of USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Yannis C. Yortsos, noted that, "We are thrilled with the Base 11 collaboration, which will help attract more students into engineering, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds. In particular, we are pleased that the students will be highly engaged in the fascinating and rapidly growing space industry. We look forward to the contributions from Base 11 students."
Base 11 hopes to build a sustainable middle class by investing in STEM the workforce and education systems that the U.S. will need in the future. Currently operating out of Southern California, Nevada and Michigan, they hope to expand their reach across the country and bring more opportunities to students and engineers alike.
If rockets are your thing, check out what the USC RPL was up to over the last year and see what they have planned for the future.