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UT MITE Program |
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The University of Texas College of Engineering operates a summer camp program to encourage high school students to pursue careers in engineering. The Minority Introduction to Engineering program takes fifty kids through a 6 day program in a camp environment where they engage in a variety of activities to acquaint them with engineering. One of these activities is a rocketry engineering exercise called "Project X-35" based on a curriculum guide from NASA. This exercise simulates the engineering process by giving a team of students a Request for Proposal which they have to respond to within a limited budget. They complete a design for a rocket, put together a proposal, and build a prototype based on their design.
The program was (which included a lot more than rockets) was put together by Mesa Davis, Outreach Coordinator for the College of Engineering. AARG helped to select the curriculum activities (model rockets rather than water rockets), selection of an appropriate array of raw materials, and selection of RockSim as the design program. AARG also acted as the "Launch Port" for the engineering simulation - each student paid a one million dollar fee to have the prototype rocket launched. Too bad it was only play money!
The students worked almost completely autonomously, receiving only a brief introduction to RockSim and rocket concepts from AARG assistants.
For this effort, rockets were built with raw materials from Apogee Components and the engineering design was done using RockSim. This allowed the students to create a complete rocket design and simulate the flight before ever touching building materials, which gives them a good feel for a real engineering environment.
Of course, the real purpose of the exercise is the process, but a lot of the excitement for the students (just like real engineers) is the actual building and launching.
| Coverage of the first MITE launch at the UT Intermural Fields by Channel 8 News. |
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| Audio coverage of the event on KLBJ radio (240 k) | ||
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| The design room | A design in progress | Students work in teams |
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| Range set up | News crews on hand | Mary Hood, academic coordinator, looks on as a team gets organized |
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| A Successful Launch | Students Coordinate with Recovery Team downrange via radio |
Flight line forms as students prepare to fly |
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| The flight line | Students present their work to the press | Students on camera |