Team Lead and Club President: Meredith Patterson
Prior Experience: Vice President, Treasurer
Biography & Responsibilities: As the leader of both the Senior Design Team and High Powered Rocketry Club, Meredith hopes to push the club to be more inclusive, organized, prepared for the future, and successful in competition. She interned at NASA Langley in 2020 working on hypersonics, and at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in summer of 2022 working on SLS acoustics testing. She has also done aerodynamics research with NC State’s supersonic wind tunnel as well as rover research with NC State’s Engineering Mechanics and Space Systems Lab. During her free time, she loves to hike and watch Formula 1 with her dog Chewie.
Structures Lead: Mike Pudlo
Prior Experience: Outreach Officer
Biography & Responsibilities: Mike is the senior in charge of constructing the rocket. He hopes to redesign the fin can to include removable fins so more parts of the rocket are recyclable and alterable. He also has level 2 certification from Tripoli Rocketry Association. When he isn’t working on the rocket, he works as a research assistant for the NCSU Composite Design and Manufacturing Lab.
Recovery Lead: Shaan Stephen
Prior Experience: Treasurer
Biography & Responsibilities: Shaan is the senior in charge of getting the rocket, payload and all, reach the ground safely and with its mission accomplished. His goal is to achieve the highest amount of points for this years upcoming NASA Student Launch. He is currently working as a research assistant for the Aerospace Engineering department.
Aerodynamics Lead: JW Mason
Biography & Responsibilities: JW hopes to design the most successful rocket at this year’s NASA Student Launch. He enjoys mountain biking, scuba diving, snowboarding; and flight simulation, of course. He spent two years as a student associate at Parker Lord working on circular force generators and sensors research and development, and a summer of design and construction of NCSU’s Hypersonic Wind Tunnel.
Payload Electronics Lead: Ben Lewis
Biography & Responsibilities: Ben is the senior in charge of this years rocket’s electronics. He hopes to learn more about hardware and software integration in an Aerospace context, and the basics of RF communication and command. He has worked as a Satellite Network Operations Engineer Intern at Iridium Communications and as a research assistant at Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics (CAMAL) here at NCSU. In his spare time he likes to design modular synths.
Integration Lead: Chris Luzzi
Biography & Responsibilities: Chris’s objective for this year’s senior design project is to facilitate communication between the vehicle and payload teams and ensure that all new concepts/ideas are smoothly integrated into the rocket. He is an avid rock climber in his spare time.
Payload Structures Lead: Ashwin Sivayogan
Prior Experience: Social Media Officer
Biography & Responsibilities: Ashwin hopes to learn more about the engineering design process, create a successful payload, and finally graduate. He previously worked in the Intelligent Systems and Structures Research Lab (iSSRL) as a junior, and is currently assisting in the construction of the Hypersonic Wind Tunnel here at NCSU. In his free time, he enjoys like camping, hiking, and climbing!
Payload Systems Lead: Frances McBride
Prior Experience: Safety Officer
Biography & Responsibilities: Frances hopes to build and manage launch vehicle payload systems that relay reliable and good quality data. She has worked as a co-op intern for NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center, working on counterflowing jets, solar sails, and night-sky imaging for lunar lander positioning. She previously did research on a fin jitter-induced lift system for canard configuration missile systems. Now, she researches properties of twisted Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) and their abilities to autonomously navigate solid and fluid mazes. Frances looks forward to meeting and working with friendly engineers, scientists, and hobbyists that are developing their passion for high power rocketry.
Club Officers:
Club Vice President: Joseph Alonso
Biography & Responsibilities: Joseph is a junior in Aerospace Engineering, and this year will be taking charge of WolfWorks Experimental as Vice President. He hopes to complete a successful interest launch, and recruit more interest in rocket-related workshops. He is also a big fan of Premier League soccer club, Liverpool FC.
Safety Officer: Megan Rink
Biography & Responsibilities: Megan is a sophomore in History, concentrating in the Space Race era. In addition to maximizing our safety score from NASA, she hopes to create a fun and safe environment this year and improve the overall safety awareness of the club as a whole. In addition to rocketry, Megan is also the Vice President of the Red Terrors Soccer Support Club. She is a massive audiophile and is an avid record collector.
Treasurer: Trent Couse
Prior Experience: Secretary
Biography & Responsibilities: Trent is a junior in Aerospace Engineering. Aside from his typical routine as Treasurer, he plans to help contact new sponsors for the club and restructure the management of all club finances. In his free time, he enjoys climbing.
Secretary: Emma McDonald
Prior Experience: Safety Officer
Biography & Responsibilities: Emma is a senior in Mechanical Engineering. She is responsible for sending weekly newsletters and this year hopes to expand HPRC through networking and new sponsorships. She is also an equestrian, and has a horse named “Clue”.
Social Media: Hanna McDaniel
Biography & Responsibilities: Hanna is a senior in in Aerospace Engineering. Through social media posts, she hopes to keep people up to date on the club’s activities, visually document our design/building process this year, and show off just how much fun we have as a team. She enjoys reading and writing a lot (poetry, short stories, novels) and dreams to one day be a published author.
Outreach Officer: Katelyn Yount
Biography & Responsibilities: Katelyn is a sophomore in Aerospace Engineering. She hopes to do more outreach events in person this year, in contrast to the last few years of virtual outreach. She enjoys swimming in her free time.
Webmaster: Sofia Antinozzi
Biography & Responsibilities: Sofia is a sophomore in Materials Science and Engineering. She plans to rejuvenate the HPRC website and join forces with our Social Media Officer and Secretary to promote events and activities. In her spare time, Sofia enjoys nature and reading crime novels.
High-Powered Rocketry Club 