Aggie Engineers Take First Place in International Rocketry Competition

As the plane Tres Trevino ‘28 was traveling on crossed the Atlantic, real life was setting back in. He was mentally preparing himself to take a test the morning after he landed while also grappling with the news he received just prior to boarding.

Looking down the aisle of the plane row he was seated in, heading back to Texas from the United Arab Emirates, he glanced at his teammates, hoping he wasn’t the only one wondering what just happened. In a moment of silent eye contact and knowing glances with the three other members of the Texas A&M Sounding Rocketry Team (SRT), the gravity of their fresh win started to sink in.

After a whirlwind trip to Abu Dhabi, UAE, the team of four representing SRT had just been awarded first place in the 2025 TII Rocketry Telemetry Challenge. The competition was fierce, 46 teams from across the world, including established aerospace companies with multi-million dollar budgets, start-ups with years of experience and other university teams. Four Aggies had just out-engineered them all, winning the $30,000 grand prize.

Every hour, test run and late-night lab session along the way had just majorly paid off. But this epic win and trip of a lifetime almost didn’t happen.

Aggie Ingenuity and Innovation Through Setbacks

SRT’s Director and aerospace engineering major Aakash Jain ‘26, actually found out about the competition through an advertisement on social media. He brought it before the team, and collectively, the members decided to throw SRT’s hat in the ring and apply.

“We saw the call for applicants, and they wanted telemetry for a hybrid rocket engine going at 10,000 ft, and we’re like, ‘we do that,’” said Riley Peterson ‘27, electrical engineering major and avionics lead for SRT. “We have time. We’re working on a hybrid rocket already, we’re going to apply to this.”

From there came early morning video calls, interviews with the TII committee in the UAE and eventually an invitation to compete.

Innovation was the name of the game as the team would need to present designs for a complete solution for a telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) data link to be installed on the institution’s cutting-edge hybrid sounding rocket. Relatively low-cost and quicker to build, sounding rockets are instrumental in atmospheric research, used to carry scientific instruments to altitudes beyond the reach of weather balloons but below traditional satellites.

TT&C systems allow engineers to monitor the health of launch vehicles, pinpoint their location and send instructions mid-flight, making them an indispensable part of any launch operation. Acting as the critical, real-time lifeline between a launch vehicle and ground control that ensures mission success, safety and control from liftoff to landing, SRT’s system would need to display these abilities to a panel of judges in real time.

After rounds of evaluations, SRT was notified that their TT&C system was one of the top solutions in the competition, earning them an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi to demonstrate it in-person. Four members from the avionics sub-team, Shaan Patel ‘27, Tres Trevino ‘28, Riley Peterson ‘27 and Matthew Davidson ‘25 would be going to represent SRT. The anticipation was growing, and the team felt confident in what they had built — but nobody expected what came next.

In June, just five months before they were set to go to the UAE, the entire system was lost after a rough landing during a test run of their Morpheus rocket. All of a sudden, it was back to the drawing board.

“The hardest moment getting to the UAE was definitely when our system was destroyed over the summer. That moment, when we barely recovered it in a completely inoperable state, that was the moment I was thinking it’s all over,” said Trevino. “Everyone was just scrambling, trying to think of how we could find the money to rebuild something and source the parts in time. I knew we were going to have to work so hard, but we rallied.”

With a little Aggie engineering ingenuity and burning of the midnight oil, the team beat the odds and did more than just replace their system. They were able to completely optimize their design, which would lead them to victory.

An Experience That Can Be Found Nowhere Else

The make-or-break moments didn’t stop there. It was a challenge even getting their TT&C system on the flight to the UAE.

Not wanting to risk a single mishap, the team carried their entire system onto the plane. From there, Trevino continued to work on finalizing the hardware and software rebuilds the entire plane ride and in their hotel room upon arrival. Down to the wire, Trevino was benchmarking, running the numbers, checking bug fixes and making sure every single detail worked as quickly as they needed it to.

In hindsight, the mad dash to the finish line ended up being some of the team’s favorite memories: staying up late, crowded around a table with their computers, hovering above the system and sharing rapid-fire ideas. Trevino notes that in those moments, while the stress and the pressure were definitely building, they were having a lot of fun.

For Trevino and Peterson, it’s not lost on them how much being a part of this organization has impacted their own Aggie experiences. From receiving mentorship from older engineers to networking with former students to developing hands-on skills that will prepare them for careers they’ve dreamed of, being a part of SRT has been an invaluable experience.

“Being a member of this team has impacted the way that I approach engineering as a whole. I’ve realized how much fun I’m having, making friends and then also learning so much about rocketry, electronics and systems,” said Trevino. “I’ve been learning what it’s like to be an engineer in industry. That’s a hands-on experience you really can’t get in a class, going to meetings, making decisions for the team — truly solving problems.”

Building Rockets and Aggie Engineers

Founded in 2013, SRT has grown into one of the largest multidisciplinary rocketry student organizations in the nation. Over the past decade, students have designed, built and tested 12 different flight-ready vehicles. Costing about $10,000 per rocket and engine build, every part of the process is managed by Aggies — from inception to construction to launch.

Comprised of 86 members across seven subteams, the team operates much like a business. From sourcing materials and building rockets and engines from scratch, to software development, hardware programming, fundraising, securing sponsorships and competing, these Aggies are learning how to run a complete aerospace operation.

Having such a large team, they can take on more ambitious projects like the TII Competition. The hands-on experience Aggie engineers get in the aerospace field because of this is priceless, and is a huge motivator for incoming engineering students to join the team. Many find out about SRT in high school and have hopes of getting in before they even step foot on Texas A&M’s campus.

Hundreds of students apply to SRT every year, and it’s easy to see why. SRT is a testament to the fact that there are no limits to what Aggies can accomplish when their passions help empower their success through student organizations. Their win is one example of the many ways Texas A&M is launching the kind of talented, industry-ready engineers who go on to make a difference worldwide.