42.27° N / 71.62° W — Westborough, MA

Sophomore at Westborough High School. I design mechanical components in Fusion 360, lay out printed circuit boards, and write the embedded software that drives them. I also lead the Westborough Rocketry Club, a program I rebuilt from inactive into a fifteen-member team. Objective: aerospace engineering at MIT. Scroll to run the launch sequence.

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T-10.0
ALT 0000 M
VEL 0000 M/S
000 — STANDBY
MTR-F WRC-01 BT-80 AV-BAY NC-01
001 — RECOVERYNose cone and parachute bay. Deploys at apogee and returns the vehicle safely to the ground.
002 — AVIONICSThe instrumentation bay: the altimeter and sensors that record the actual flight profile.
003 — AIRFRAMEBody tube and fin can, designed in CAD. The primary structure every other subsystem depends on.
004 — PROPULSIONThe motor mount and engine. Continue scrolling for ignition.
001

Recovery — About

Who's building this

I'm a sophomore at Westborough High School working across the full engineering stack: CAD models that become 3D-printed hardware, circuit and PCB designs that become working electronics, and the embedded software that integrates them. Rocketry demands all three at once, which is why it sits at the center of my work.

I completed the full prerequisite sequence for MIT Beaver Works' autonomous drone racing program: flight control, quadrotor dynamics, Python, and linear algebra. That foundation carries through everything I build. I also lead the Westborough Rocketry Club, which was inactive when I took it over; today it is a fifteen-member team that designs, builds, and flies together.

15
Active club members
3+
Programming languages in use
1
Club rebuilt from inactive
5
MIT Beaver Works prerequisite courses
Current focus OpenRocket flight assistant· Java· ARC season preparation
002

Avionics — Build Log

Hardware & software
Shipped

Animated Face Companion

A Raspberry Pi 3B+ driving an OLED display as an animated character: blink cycles, idle expressions, and RFID-triggered responses with per-tag messaging. The majority of the effort was systems debugging — display timing, rendering artifacts, and tuning the animation until expressions read clearly.

Raspberry PiOLEDRFIDPython
Shipped

Quadrotor PID Flight Sim

A Python simulator developed alongside the MIT Beaver Works coursework. It models a quadrotor stabilized by PID control loops, introduces configurable wind disturbance, and plots the controller's corrective response. Hand-tuning the gains proved the fastest way to internalize the theory.

PythonPID ControlNumPyMatplotlib
In Development

OpenRocket Flight Assistant

A Raspberry Pi tool that parses OpenRocket .ork simulation files and flags stability and recovery issues before launch, presented through a pixel-art interface. It began as an XML parsing exercise and is becoming the club's standard pre-flight check.

XML ParsingRaspberry PiOpenRocket
In Development

Parametric Rocket Parts Library

A library of parametric Fusion 360 models for nose cones, fin cans, and centering rings. Entering a body-tube diameter produces a print-ready part. The design goal: a new club member moves from concept to printed component within a single meeting.

Fusion 360Parametric CAD3D Printing
In Development

Drone Signal Mapper

A drone payload that logs GPS position against RF signal strength in flight, then renders the data as a coverage heatmap identifying where control signal degrades — practical reconnaissance for flying unfamiliar sites.

DronesRFGPSMapping
On Deck

Launch Control Box

An ignition controller for club launch operations: key-switch arming, igniter continuity verification, and a committed fire control. Modeled on standard range-safety practice and scaled to a school club's requirements.

RelaysSafety InterlocksElectronics
003

Airframe — Rocketry

Westborough Rocketry Club

When I assumed leadership of the Westborough Rocketry Club, it was inactive: no meetings, no launches, no members. Rebuilding it took sustained effort. Today we are an active fifteen-member team. I run our meetings and teach CAD to new members, and we plan builds and launch days as a group.

We have flown in the American Rocketry Challenge, and every flight has directly informed the next build. Next season's plan centers on preparation: altimeter data from every launch and OpenRocket simulation before every flight, so problems are caught in review rather than on the pad.

This past June we hosted Rocket Day, a full-day outreach program introducing middle-school students to rocketry. I led the planning, and the club delivered the event as a team: a presentation, a CAD lesson, a supervised build, and a live launch to close the day.

Westborough Rocketry Club logo
Westborough Rocketry Club
Rebuilt & led by Andrew Varughese
15 members · Westborough High School
Outreach — planned by me, delivered by the club

Rocket Day

A full-day program for rising 7th–9th grade students: an introductory presentation, a hands-on CAD lesson, supervised rocket assembly, and a live launch to close the event.

Jun 13, 2026Date
Westborough HS10:00 – 2:45
~20Students
LaunchClosing event
004

Propulsion — Skills & Stack

What I build with
Python
Primary language
C++
Embedded systems
Java
In progress
Fusion 360
CAD + assemblies
OpenRocket
Flight simulation
Raspberry Pi
Embedded Linux
3D Printing
Rapid prototyping
Electronics
Sensors · RFID · OLED
PCB Design
Schematics & layout

MIT Beaver Works — Prerequisite Coursework, Completed

Flight ControlQuadrotorsLinear Algebra Probability & StatisticsSystems Engineering
005

Trajectory

Where this is headed
The objective is MIT, in aerospace or mechanical engineering. The approach: keep designing, building, and flying real hardware.
Outside of engineering, I play violin in my school's Chamber Orchestra and qualified for the Junior District Orchestra. Refining a passage demands the same discipline as debugging hardware.

MIT Beaver Works prerequisite sequence Complete

Completed the full prerequisite sequence for the autonomous drone racing course: flight control, quadrotor dynamics, Python, linear algebra, and probability.

Revived the Westborough Rocketry Club Ongoing

Assumed leadership of an inactive club and rebuilt it into a fifteen-member team that designs, builds, and flies together.

American Rocketry Challenge — first season Complete

Completed our first competition season. Each flight produced lessons applied directly to the next build.

Rocket Day — June 2026 Complete

A full-day outreach program for approximately twenty rising 7th–9th grade students. I led the planning; the club delivered the presentation, CAD instruction, builds, and launch.

Flight data program In progress

Instrumenting every club rocket with an altimeter and running OpenRocket simulation before each launch, replacing guesswork with data.

ARC qualification campaign Next

Returning to the American Rocketry Challenge with a full season of flight experience behind us.

MIT — AeroAstro / MechE Target

Where this trajectory is aimed.