Photo Op: High-Flying Model Rocket Competition for High School Students Hosted by UAB School of Engineering

More than 25 students from high schools across the Birmingham area will launch model rockets they built as part of a three-session design/build competition at the UAB School of Engineering.

Posted on October 12, 2004 at 10:40 a.m.

     

WHAT:

  

More than 25 students from high schools across the Birmingham area will launch model rockets they built as part of a three-session design/build competition at the UAB School of Engineering. The UAB student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering are sponsoring the event.

     

BACKGROUND:

  

Groups of three students from each school spent the first two Saturdays in October designing and building model rockets using composite and plastic materials. These are “high-tech” versions of hobby-style model rockets constructed with materials and techniques normally associated with the aerospace industry. The rockets must meet certain design goals to win. These are:

  • Weight — The rocket must be light enough to reach the highest altitude possible but at the same time tough enough to survive the fall back to the ground.

  • Design — Students are judged on the originality of the design and the reasoning behind the materials chosen to make the rocket.

  • Cost — Even though all of the materials used in the competition are free, the students still have to evaluate what the cost of the materials would have been if they were purchased. The lower the cost, the better the score.

  • Performance — Each rocket will have two test flights to measure how high it flies and its condition after each launch. Maximum altitude and best survivor win.
     

WHEN:

  

Thursday, October 14, 2004
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

     

WHERE:

  

UAB West Campus Field, 800 block of 11th Street South across from the tennis courts

     

FYI:

  

The competition is supported by the 2004 SPE-Chase Plastics Student Chapter Education Award. The UAB student chapter competed against schools from all over the country and won the prize, $2,500 from the society for the best plan to promote education in plastics. As part of the three-day event, the participating students will tour NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Thursday afternoon after the competition. The Huntsville tour also will include an awards ceremony and lunch for the competitors.