Oliver Edmond

Hi everyone, I'm Ollie and I'm the current Project Lead for Project Kepler, the Rocket Engine Design Project.

As lead of the project this year, I’m proud of the many exciting developments the team has accomplished. We've manufactured multiple chamber iterations, we're nearing a complete design of our turbomachinery, and we've begun testing of all the complex subsystems of the engine—making excellent progress towards the engine's first-ever firing in June/July!

My part in helping the team accomplish these milestones has involved: strong involvement in technical development, team organisation, task delegation, sponsor engagement, mentoring and outreach, presentation delivery and recruitment and training of newcomers.

I'd like to particularly highlight the success of the 4-week 'Introduction-to-Rocket-Engine-Design' course that myself, Liam and Theo created and delivered this year. It was an excellent way to attract over 60 newcomers to the project and help them feel more comfortable diving into the scarily complex yet exciting world of Rocket Science. Next year, I'd love to build on and improve the course to further grow interest in the project and the society.

As chair, I'd like to continue the engaging program of activities the society currently runs while expanding opportunities and events for more casual members. Currently, the society manages its 4 projects excellently, but I'd like to increase the number of talks we give (by taking an active role in sponsor acquisition), expand the scale of hackathons, put on quizzes, and bring back watch-alongs for launches—activities that any space enthusiast would love to attend.