NCSSM Durham
Rocketry Design for Competition
Reach out to Garrett Love (garrett.love@ncssm.edu), NCSSM Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, to learn more about Rocketry Design for Competition
About Rocketry Design for Competition
Rocketry Design for Competition provides students with an authentic engineering modeling and design experience in accordance with the objectives of the annual American Rocketry Challenge, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association.
Current Students to Contact
What would I do in the program?
Course activities will include iterative engineering design, rocket construction, flight modeling and data analysis. Required rocket launches, including as many as two launches scheduled on weekends, may occur outside of the regular course schedule. Students are encouraged to participate in the American Rocketry Challenge as part of the NCSSM rocketry team, and students with previous rocketry experience may choose to focus class build activities on achieving National Association of Rocketry High Power Certification.
How do I know this program is a good fit for me?
Reach out to Garrett Love (garrett.love@ncssm.edu), NCSSM Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, to learn more!
What projects have past / current students worked on?
Topics include Newton’s laws of motion, propulsion, aerodynamics, and recovery techniques as well as the history of space programs and orbital mechanics.
Co-requisites
PH3500 Physics Core: Mechanics, or PH4020, or PH4240 & MA4000 PreCalculus
Scheduling
Fall Semester
(open to juniors and seniors)
Commitment
One Semester
Course Information
EE4145,
Academic Year
Academic Year
Garrett Love, NCSSM Dean of Engineering and Computer Science
The oldest of seven children and a product of Aberdeen, ID and Tilton, NH, Dr. Garrett Love received degrees in Civil Engineering from MIT and Duke University in 1991 and 2001, respectively. His academic studies were complemented by a tour of service as a high school mathematics teacher in Helena, Arkansas with Teach for America 1991-1994, and by a 5-year stint 2001-2005 as a staff scientist with the Shodor Education Foundation, “a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the advancement of science and math education, specifically through the use of modeling and simulation technologies.” Garrett joined the faculty of North Carolina Central University in the fall of 2005, serving 10 years and earning tenure as a professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Sciences. After a semester of experience teaching IVC Honors Aerospace with NCSSM DEEP, he joined the program full time as an Instructor of Engineering in Fall 2015.
Garrett has extensive experience in computational modeling, originally applied to impact mechanics his dissertation included a model of a club impact with a golf ball, but since focused on a range of environmental problems including groundwater modeling, remote sensing of impervious surfaces and mapping of food deserts, many enhanced with newly procured skills in Geographic Information Systems GIS. He has a long-time interest in the development of curricular materials for enhancing engineering and other STEM education through computation, having designed online curricular models and lessons for Shodor, a proposed undergraduate major in Computational Science for NCCU, a module for NCCU Summer Ventures in Science and Mathematics entitled “The Scientist and the Super Model” focused on modeling and simulation, and most recently NCSSM accelerator courses “Young Builder’s Guild” and “Stars, Storms and Sims.” At NCSSM, Garrett has recently taught Civil and Environmental Engineering Online, Aerospace Engineering Online, IVC and Residential and Statics Residential. He also teaches a summer accelerator course in Rocketry.
Garrett spends “after-school” time coaching competitive soccer for eight- and nine-year-old girls with NCFC Youth and has a history of dabbling in amateur music and theater in the Triangle, as one-time accordionist with Jimmy Magoo and the Little Bang Band and performer with the Somnabulist project. His wife, Hope, is the theater director at East Chapel Hill High school and they met during a summer performance at the Forest Theater in Chapel Hill. Garrett has a school-age son who shares his love for board games and music.
Course Descriptions
EE4145 Rocketry Design for Competition
Prerequisite(s): None
Corequisite(s): PH3500 Physics Core: Mechanics, or PH4020, or PH4240 & MA4000 PreCalculus
Graduation Requirements Met: One STEM credit OR One Computer Science / Engineering credit
Schedule Requirements Met: One of five courses required each semester
Meeting Times: One period per week AND two 100-min evening periods
This course provides students with an authentic engineering modeling and design experience in accordance with the objectives of the annual American Rocketry Challenge, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association. Topics include Newton’s laws of motion, propulsion, aerodynamics, and recovery techniques as well as the history of space programs and orbital mechanics. Course activities will include iterative engineering design, rocket construction, flight modeling and data analysis. Required rocket launches, including as many as two launches scheduled on weekends, may occur outside of the regular course schedule. Students are encouraged to participate in the American Rocketry Challenge as part of the NCSSM rocketry team, and students with previous rocketry experience may choose to focus class build activities on achieving National Association of Rocketry High Power Certification.