Mudd Amateur Rocketry Club
Avionics Lead
September 2022 – present
Leading avionics for Harvey Mudd's competition rocketry team, which launches dual-deployment rockets at collegiate competitions. Writing the club's first active-control flight computer firmware.
Highlights
- Developing the club's first active-control flight computer driver in embedded C, with redundant sensing for reliable state estimation through high-g saturation during ascent.
- Reduced apogee-detection timing error by about 30% and ran a magnetometer interference study.
- Wrote a Level 1 rocket design guide for beginners and led build sessions for 60+ students.
- Team placed 1st, 3rd and 5th at Friends of Amateur Rocketry Unlimited contests (2026, 2025, 2024).
The flight computer
During ascent a rocket can pull enough g’s to saturate a typical accelerometer, and that’s exactly when you need a good estimate of where the rocket is. I’m writing the club’s first active-control flight computer driver in embedded C. It combines redundant sensors so the state estimate stays reliable through high-g saturation, which cut our apogee-detection timing error by about 30%. I also ran a magnetometer interference study.
Teaching
I wrote a Level 1 rocket design guide for beginners and have led rocket-building sessions for more than 60 students.
Competitions
The team placed 5th, 3rd and then 1st at Friends of Amateur Rocketry Unlimited contests in 2024, 2025 and 2026.