The Job

SARP, or the Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion, is one of the largest student engineering organizations at the University of Washington with about 100-180 students, depending on the year. The team strives to build high power rockets, developing its members' engineering skills along the way. Over the past couple of years we have participated in the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) and we are gearing up to compete in the Friends of Amateur Rocketry Oxidizers Uninhibited Tournament (FAR-OUT) in the 2025-26 academic year. The Project Manager is the lead responsible for the entire team's organization, safety, outside communication, and overall operations.

My Work

I took on the role of Project Manager at the end of my sophomore year of college, in 2024. I immediately sought to overhaul the team, conducting exit interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of our project structure and ensure that everyone was getting an adequate amount of work. I reduced the size of our team down from 160 students to 120, giving every member ownership over a part of a rocket while making it easier to manage the team. It was our second year back at IREC, and we went from placing 46th out of 121 teams in 2024, to placing 18th out of 143 teams in 2025. We also completed the first year of our liquid bipropellant rocket's two year design cycle, completing engine design and gearing up to transition into manufacturing and testing. I oversaw our team's interfacing with department faculty, university leadership, aerospace industry contacts, alumni, and prospective and active members. The team launched 3 rockets and cold flowed 1 liquid engine, getting us back into a regular testing and launching cadence. We also increased outreach with more networking events with industry, and STEM outreach at local elementary and middle schools.

What I Learned

Managing a 120 person team was one of the most challenging jobs I have undertaken. I learned so much about conflict resolution, interpersonal dynamics, and engineering through this experience. As project manager, I was the person people turned to when they had interpersonal issues. I learned when it was best to listen and when it was necessary for me to step in. I also learned how to mitigate these kinds of issues before they boiled over, whether it was by pulling people aside to diffuse situations earlier, or by separating people who didn't get along. I had the opportunity to interview dozens of prospective members for my team, through which I learned how to judge someone's potential from an interview and assess a need within my team and find someone to address that need. I was also responsible for attending all of our design reviews and giving feedback to improve our systems. I got to learn a lot about dozens of systems by seeing how my team was designing solutions and offering feedback to improve those designs. I am excited to take these skills into my new role on the team, as the lead test operations engineer for our liquid propulsion system!