UKZN launches Aerospace Systems Research Institute
Durban — The University of KwaZulu-Natal officially launched its Aerospace Systems Research Institute (ASRI) after being inspired by the rocket engineers taking to the global stage.
A team of students and staff from ASRI has participated in the 2024 SciTech aerospace conference held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Vedanth Reddy, an engineer at ASRI, said they received support for the trip from the Department of Science and Innovation.
Reddy said that SciTech showcased the very latest global developments in aerospace engineering in January in Orlando, Florida, and was one of the largest international aerospace conferences, attracting over 6000 delegates from 48 countries, including over 2000 students from the world’s top universities. Reddy said that in addition to academic presentations, AIAA hosted an exhibition of major aerospace companies such as SpaceX, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and NASA, to enable networking and knowledge transfer with young professionals.
Reddy said this year, SciTech hosted 2500 technical presentations covering a range of cutting-edge topics from liquid propulsion cryogenics, machine learning in combustion, and applied surrogate modelling, to hypersonic, aerodynamics, and green engineering.
Professor Michael Brooks, ASRI’s founding director and an associate professor in UKZN’s Mechanical Engineering discipline, said, “UKZN has strongly supported the institute, and is formally launching ASRI with a series of events aimed at informing the wider community about who we are and how we do the technical work of rocket development.”
Brooks said it was also an opportunity to bring together national stakeholders, including industrial partners and academic collaborators.
Brooks is a member of both the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering and the Aeronautical Society of South Africa, and is a registered professional engineer.
He co-founded ASRI’s forerunner, the Aerospace Systems Research Group, in 2009 and is a former programme manager of the ASReG Phoenix Hybrid Rocket Programme.
Brooks is a senior member of the AIAA, a Fulbright scholar, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
The ASRI is located in UKZN’s Discipline of Mechanical Engineering and was formally established by the Council of the University in 2022. UKZN engineers have built and tested numerous research rocket motors and flown several suborbital rockets.
Notable technical achievements include the establishment of a new African altitude record for suborbital hybrid rockets, the development and testing of the most powerful university-built liquid rocket engine in Africa, and the development of unique ground test facilities for hybrid and liquid (cryogenic) rocket propulsion systems.
“The science of rocketry is technically challenging and requires the development of an entire ecosystem of technologies and capabilities. Join us as we go behind the scenes of this high-tech enterprise, and gain a glimpse into the world of real rocket science,” said Brooks.
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