Pune: A team of 16 budding engineers from Sinhgad Institutes have designed a rocket to participate in the prestigious Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) conducted by Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA), USA.
The Sinhagad rocketry team comprises undergraduate engineering students. The group of 16 consists of 15 boys and one girl — Sanika Jeste, a pre-final mechanical engineering student.

Ninad Patil, a leading member of the team, said that their hobby of rocketry fired their passion to compete in the world’s biggest rocketry competition. They expect stiff competition, with teams expected to field some of the finest experimental rockets. The students said they are excited to compete with the top-notch colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology and Stanford University.

Rachana Navale Ashtekar, vice-president, Sinhgad Institutes, recently unveiled the rocket — dubbed the Rocket APJ, named as tribute to India’s missile man and former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Rocket APJ would first compete in the world’s largest inter-collegiate rocket engineering competition, the SA Cup 2018, scheduled to be held at Las Cruces, NM Convention Centre, and Spaceport America’s vertical launch area between June 19 and 23.

The STES rocketry team is the only team from Maharashtra and one only two teams representing India at this competition.

“The hard work and ingenuity of the team is a clear reflection of the bright future of our students in the global arena. These budding engineers are clearly rocket scientists,” Ashtekar said.

“This inter-collegiate rocket engineering competition has become the flagship activity of a new annual event called the Spaceport America Cup (SA Cup), which has more than 100 teams participating in it from across the globe, including top Ivy League colleges,” Ashtekar further added.

The competition will have two categories — rockets built on commercially available propellant solid (COTS), liquid or hybrid, and Student team Research and Design (SRAD), a custom propellant
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Rockets are further classified to compete in 10,000ft or 30,000ft apogee and are judged on flight accuracy. Other criteria include project concept, design, implementation, flight performance and successful recovery, payload innovation and functionality and professional conduct and use of procedures.

“For the 2018 edition of SA Cup, STES rocketry — our team aims — to compete in the 10,000ft category with a COTS propellant,” Patil said.