Gen Space: University of Sydney's rocketry team win global competition

Australian university rocketry teams combine engineering excellence with innovative designs to achieve major successes in competitions like IREC 2025. 

These strong performances highlight the world class talent of Australian undergraduate engineers and cements a strong undergraduate ambition in our growing space industry.

It requires expertise from many different technical disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, computer science, and project management. 

Every project relies on multiple disciplines working together and contributing their knowledge to solve complex problems and ensure a safe and successful flight.

Balancing technical ambition with team sustainability is no small task. It’s a challenge to push boundaries while also managing time, morale, and resources, especially in a student-led team. 

Maintaining momentum through setbacks and complexity is tough, but seeing students develop into exceptional engineers while forming lasting friendships makes it completely worthwhile.

It’s been incredibly rewarding to apply my engineering knowledge across the full systems engineering lifecycle, from designing and manufacturing components to hands-on experience testing our hybrid engines and conducting launch operations. 

Putting theory into practice on a project of this scale has been an incredible opportunity as an undergraduate student.

My role for the team was to conduct thesis research on hybrid propulsion. While developing a passive mixing device for my thesis, the component experienced a premature failure during hot-fire testing. 

This unexpected failure led me to explore alternative materials and thoroughly investigate failure modes, turning a major setback into a valuable research opportunity in hybrid combustion.

My aim is to explore areas like material performance, combustion efficiency, and system reliability in this field. 

Professionally, I’m keen to advance this underrepresented technology through collaborative research, innovation, and development within the broader Australian space sector.

Whether it's in the Australian outback or the Texas desert, the best part of these competitions has always been the company. It’s been great to meet fellow nerds from all over the world. 

Having such a great community of judges, volunteers, and other students is really inspiring.

I've gained invaluable experience about coordinating a team that comprises of different disciplines and backgrounds. 

The opportunity has given me a greater understanding of how to support leadership effectively, which I think has been really helpful in the workplace.

Being a part of the team has provided me direct access to some of the greatest minds at the University of Sydney. I've worked alongside highly talented student engineers, as well as leading experts in the faculty. 

This environment has allowed me to significantly grow as an engineer as well as my leadership skills.

My initial impression of the Australian space sector was that it was small and niche, and only just starting to grow. 

Over the past few years though, the more I've been exposed to it, I've begun to realise that it is expanding at a rapid rate. The sector offers a diverse range of opportunities and is developing novel technologies.

I began at the USYD Rocketry team designing media coverage. Over the past nine months, I've built remote camera systems, learned safety, and embraced failure. 

During my time with the team, I've also found a supportive and inspiring community that shares my passion for rockets.

My is aim to work in computational aerodynamics and aerospace structures, designing, and optimising launch vehicles. 

The eventual goal is to advance space science in Nepal, fostering STEM education and inspiring future space initiatives.