JULY 16, 2024 — Inspiring the engineers of the future, and having fun while learning, is the best way to describe UTSA’s Rocketry and Robotics Camp. For the third summer, the Aeronautics and Rocketry Club (ARC) and the Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) are teaming up to provide high school students an unforgettable hands-on learning experience at the UTSA Main Campus.
“This is just a way for us to introduce students to engineering and to UTSA,” said Carlos Velez, senior program manager for the student success center in the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design. “They go to our spaces and then hopefully they say ‘It was nice here. I got to work with the students, faculty and staff.’”
The week-long camp, which began on Monday, July 15, has students working in teams as members of ARC and RAS guide them through the rocket and robotics build process.
“This is just like a design build camp. We’re all hands on,” Velez said. “You don’t have to sit through presentations.”
At the end of the week, the teams will test their rockets and robotics in two fun competitions. First, the robotic teams will put their robots in “sumo-style” head-to-head battles. Each team will attempt to pop balloons attached to the robots.
The camp will conclude on Friday, July 19, with teams competing in a rocket launch competition on the Main Campus. Students will send their rockets as high as 700 feet into the sky, equivalent to the height of the Tower of Americas in downtown San Antonio.
