July 2023 Statler Circuit: Department Digest and Awards

Student Competition Teams

WVU rocketry team competes in international collegiate rocketry competition. Among a group of 5,913 students from 120 college and university teams competing from 24 countries, WVU Experimental Rocketry Club placed 66th out of 120 teams in the 2023 Spaceport American Cup on June 24. This event is the premiere, international collegiate rocketry event of the year. Participants come from all over the world to enter their high-powered experimental rocket. 

As a team, they earned 8th place out of 13 participating teams in the 10,000 foot Student Researched and Developed Solid Fueled category. Experimental Rocketry President, Paislee Adlington, was awarded an "On the Spot Recognition" Challenge Coin from the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association judge's panel for "Outstanding Female Engineering and Perseverance."

“The club has really grown in its capabilities and commitment to field of experimental rocketry,” said Pat Browning, MAE associate professor and faculty adviser. “The club has essentially designed and manufactured every component of the rocket, including our own fiber-wound fiberglass body tubes, custom altimeter and solid rocket motors shows that the club is really growing in its capabilities and commitment to field of experimental rocketry.”

The student-led, cross-disciplinary team is comprised of more than 60 members of undergraduate and graduate students. Paislee Adlington, Noah Trimmer, Elizabeth Breckenridge, Charley Howard, Cameron Spaeth, Sam Bartle, Michael Farha, Nathan Bonafield, Mitchell Lisk, Ben Renninger are from the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Brady Davidson is a chemical engineering major; Gabriel Piatt is from the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Corey Kinder is from the history department. Patrick Browning is the club faculty advisor and Joseph Pscolka is the club technical advisor.

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