USM team the first to represent Malaysia in world's largest student rocket launch competition

PETALING JAYA: A team from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will represent Malaysia in the nation's debut at the Spaceport America Cup 2022, the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference, in the United States in June.

The USM team comprising 12 students will be led by Vanmitha Athimoolam, with advisers Dr Norilmi Amilia Ismail and Dr Chang Wei Shyang from the School of Aerospace Engineering, and mentored by Julian Chee Yie Jian and Ahmad Tamimi Ahmad Termizi.

They will participate in the competition, organised by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association, from June 21-25 in New Mexico.

Norilmi Amilia said on the university's website that she was proud of the team’s progress as they started with limited knowledge in rocket design and manufacturing.

However, she said they managed to get up to speed in rocket design with the help of their appointed mentors who are experienced in rocket launches.

The team, Norilmi Amilia said, was motivated to join the competition because of their passion in building up the country's rocketry industry.

The Spaceport America Cup 2022 was also a golden opportunity for the participants to apply all the fundamentals they had learned and be the first student team to build a high-powered rocket, she added.