Meet The Students of Cohort-1
University of Southampton X Rolls Royce
Maksymilian Augustyn
Maksymilian Augustyn is an aerospace propulsion engineer with a deep interest in Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs). A Warsaw University of Technology graduate, he completed his bachelor’s and master’s theses on RDEs. For the past three years, he has worked as an R&D engineer at the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw. His work has focused on liquid-propellant rocket and ramjet RDEs, encompassing CFD analysis of detonative combustion, conjugate heat transfer and combustor aerodynamics, mechanical design, and conducting lab experiments.
Maksymilian's project aims to research loss mechanisms in the rocket Rotating Detonation Engines (RDE). He will design and deploy a propellant delivery system and then set up the water-cooled RDE experiment in full.
University of Bristol X Airborne Engineering
Jack Cunningham
Jack is a Swansea University physics graduate with over eight years of defence industry experience in radio frequency simulation and experimentation. During his time in industry, he has collected a myriad of applied/programming skills which will be put to good use during this PhD.
Jack's project is focused on the control of rockets and specifically how to perform landing manoeuvres with them. The plan is to look at both classical control of rockets and whether it's possible to apply reinforcement learning to this kind of platform. The important part will be the creation of a realistic model on which to perform a significant number of training loops before taking a trained agent out into the real world.
Find out more about Jack's research project.
University of Glasgow
Mohammed Deera
Mohammed is a QMUL graduate in Material Science and Aerospace Engineering, specialising in propulsion systems and additive manufacturing, with expertise in green monopropellant thrusters and CubeSat development. He completed a graduate role at Satellite Applications Catapult and served as Vice-Lead for UKSEDS Satellite Design Competition, mentoring students on 3U CubeSats.
Mohammed's current focus is on the optimisation of turbomachinery for liquid bi-propellant rocket engines. This involves improving the performance and efficiency of key components like turbopumps, which play a critical role in engine operation.
Find out more about Mohammed's research project.
Cranfield University X Newton Launch Systems
Maleha Khan
Maleha previously worked at the UK Space Agency, where she played a key role in stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, and advancing the UK's space sector on both national and international platforms. As part of the External Affairs team, she was able to engage stakeholders such as industry, NASA, the European Space Agency, UK Space Command, and other major space agencies, as well as working closely with UK Astronauts. She has also worked as a Lead Academic Tutor in Rockets in Saudi Arabia, designing and delivering her own bespoke course.
Maleha is working on finding a solution for the long term storage and use of hydrogen fuel for chemical rockets.
University of Sheffield X Airborne Engineering Ltd
Joe Leicester
Joe graduated from the University of Leeds with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering, having spent a lot of my time as part of LURA, the rocketry club there. He is now at the University of Sheffield, where he has been able to take my interests further with both Project Sunride and this PhD opportunity.
Joe is currently working on finding cheaper methods of cooling rocket engines, with a focus on Additive Manufacturing. He is currently looking at using silicone oil (specifically PDMS) as a fuel additive to create cheap thermal barrier coatings, and plan to investigate using additive manufacturing methods to create a transpiration cooled liquid rocket engine.
Kingston University X Atout Process Ltd
George Luker
Raised in South London, George started his career as an apprentice service technician working with Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars after leaving school in 2005. After stints testing fuel injectors and as a teaching assistant in an SEN primary school, George became a musician, going full-time in 2012. Although his musical journey over the next decade was fulfilling, it was always accompanied by a deep-rooted fascination with space science and technology.
George is aiming to develop novel fuels for use in hybrid rocket engines based on the gelation of hydrocarbon propellants. Alongside this, he is looking at visualising and measuring the combustion of these fuels in real time using electrical capacitance tomography (ECT).
University of Strathclyde X HyImpulse
Matthew Norrie
With a background in control system modelling, CFD, and mechanical design, Matthew has been deeply involved with a number of technical projects during his undergraduate studies - including high power rocketry & CanSat projects affiliated with the Mach-X competitions & NRC, as well as contributing towards STRATHcube, the University of Strathclyde's CubeSat project.
Matthew's project will focus on developing GNC algorithms for multi-stage rockets powered by hybrid propulsion systems with thrust vector control.
University of Surrey X URA Thrusters Ltd
George Sadler
George obtained an MEng in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Sussex, where he gained experience in aerodynamics as a junior research associate and completed an Airbus DS Titan UAV project. He has always loved space and astronomy, and enjoys being hands-on, so he will be working on the SSC Jovian-1 CubeSat alongside my PhD on electrothermal thrusters for space transportation vehicles.
Electrothermal thrusters provide a middle ground between the high thrust of chemical engines and the high specific impulse of electrostatic propulsion, which makes them very attractive to applications like upper-stage launch vehicles. Current common implementations like Resistojets and Arcjets are lifetime-limited due to exposed heating elements/electrodes. George's research looks at electrodeless versions which will allow a variety of propellants to be used and increase thruster lifetime.
Find out more about George's research project.
University of Manchester
Kushal Singh
Kushal gained an interest in wind tunnel testing as a result of carrying out his undergraduate dissertation in grid fin aerodynamics, using Manchester’s High Super Sonic Tunnel, as part of his integrated master’s course in Aerospace Engineering at The University of Manchester.
During his undergraduate degree, he was an active member of the ManSEDS Society, taking part in the UK Race 2 Space competition, wherein, with a small team, he developed and tested a hybrid rocket motor.
University of Southampton X Bradford Space
Rosemary Swears
Rose graduated from the University of Waikato with a M.Sc. Hons in Chemistry Research. She has previously worked as the Propellant Chemist on Rocket Lab's Lunar Photon mission, and as an intern at NASA Ames. Her Ph.D. project, under the supervision of Dr. Charlie Ryan and Dr. Hanna Sykulska-Lawrence, investigates ‘green’ hypergolic propellants.
Rose's project is looking at less-toxic fuels that are hypergolic (self-igniting) with high-test hydrogen peroxide for in-space propulsion. Rose is especially interested in factors influencing how ignition delays measured by traditional drop-testing might differ from ignition delays measured when the propellants are in use, and how that plays into factors influencing how feasible a fuel might be for real commercial use.