42.27° N / 71.62° W — Westborough, MA

Sophomore at Westborough High School. I design parts in Fusion 360, lay out PCBs, and write the embedded code that makes hardware do things. I also lead the rocketry club I brought back from the dead. Next stop: aerospace engineering at MIT. Scroll down to take a rocket apart.

Start the countdown ↓ See the build log
Scroll
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 + parachute bay. First part out, last part back on the ground safely.
002 — AVIONICSWhere the electronics ride: the altimeter and sensors that record what the flight actually did.
003 — AIRFRAMEBody tube and fins, designed in CAD. The structure everything else depends on.
004 — PROPULSIONThe part that actually gets it off the ground. Keep scrolling for ignition.
001

Recovery — About

Who's building this

I'm a sophomore at Westborough High School, and I build across the whole stack: CAD models that become 3D-printed parts, PCB layouts and circuits that become working hardware, and the embedded code that ties it all together. Rockets are where all of it has to work at once, which is exactly why I like them.

I worked through every prerequisite course for MIT Beaver Works' autonomous drone racing program, covering flight control, quadrotors, Python, and a lot of linear algebra, and I still use that material constantly. I also lead our school's rocketry club, which was completely dead when I took it over. Today there are fifteen of us building and flying together.

15
Club members building & flying
3+
Languages in active use
1
Dead club brought back to life
5
MIT Beaver Works prereq courses completed
002

Avionics — Build Log

Hardware & software
Shipped

Animated Face Companion

A Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a small OLED screen that acts like a face. It blinks, has moods, and reacts when you scan RFID tags, with a different message for each tag. Most of the work turned out to be debugging: timing problems, glitchy drawing, and getting the expressions to actually look like expressions.

Raspberry PiOLEDRFIDPython
Shipped

Quadrotor PID Flight Sim

A Python simulator I wrote while working through the MIT Beaver Works coursework. It models a quadrotor held level by PID loops, lets you add wind to knock it around, and plots what the controller does to recover. Tuning the gains myself taught me more than the lectures did.

PythonPID ControlNumPyMatplotlib
In Development

OpenRocket Flight Assistant

A Raspberry Pi tool that reads OpenRocket's .ork simulation files and flags stability or recovery problems before we launch. Results show up through a little pixel-art assistant. It started as an excuse to learn XML parsing and is turning into an actual pre-flight check for the club.

XML ParsingRaspberry PiOpenRocket
In Development

Parametric Rocket Parts Library

A set of parametric Fusion 360 models for nose cones, fin cans, and centering rings. Type in a body tube diameter and it's ready to print. The goal is for a new club member to go from idea to printed part in one meeting.

Fusion 360Parametric CAD3D Printing
In Development

Drone Signal Mapper

A drone that records GPS position and RF signal strength while it flies, then turns the log into a heatmap of where control signal drops out. Useful for anyone flying somewhere new.

DronesRFGPSMapping
On Deck

Launch Control Box

An ignition controller for club launch days: key-switch arming, a continuity check, and one big red button. Modeled on how real launch ranges handle safety, scaled down to what a school club actually needs.

RelaysSafety InterlocksElectronics
003

Airframe — Rocketry

Westborough Rocketry Club

When I took over the Westborough Rocketry Club, it was dead. No meetings, no launches, nobody showing up. Rebuilding it took a while, but now we're an active 15-member club. I run the meetings and teach CAD to anyone who wants to learn it, and we plan our builds and launch days together.

We've flown in the American Rocketry Challenge, and every flight changed how we built the next rocket. For next season the plan is better preparation: altimeter data from every launch and OpenRocket sims before we fly, so we find problems on a screen instead of on the pad.

Last June we put on Rocket Day, a full-day program to get middle schoolers into rocketry. I led the planning and the whole club made it happen. Presentation, CAD lesson, build, lunch, and a real launch at the end.

Westborough Rocketry Club logo
Westborough Rocketry Club
Rebuilt & led by Andrew
15 members · Westborough HS
Led by me · Run by the whole club

Rocket Day

A full-day program for rising 7th–9th graders: an intro presentation, a hands-on CAD lesson, rocket building, lunch, and a real launch to close it out.

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

Propulsion — Skills & Stack

What I build with
Python
Daily driver
C++
Embedded work
Java
Currently learning
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 goal is MIT, aerospace or mechanical engineering. The plan is simple: keep building real things and keep flying them.
Outside of engineering I play violin in Chamber Orchestra, and I qualified for Junior District Orchestra. Practicing a passage until it's right takes the same patience as debugging hardware.

MIT Beaver Works prerequisite sequence Complete

Flight control, quadrotors, Python, linear algebra, probability. Every prereq for the autonomous drone racing course.

Revived the Westborough Rocketry Club Ongoing

Took over a completely inactive club and grew it back to 15 members who build and fly together.

American Rocketry Challenge — first season Complete

Flew our first competition season. Every flight became notes for the next build.

Rocket Day — June 2026 Complete

A full-day program the whole club put on for ~20 rising 7th–9th graders. I led the planning: presentation, CAD lesson, build, and launch.

Better flight data In progress

An altimeter in every club rocket and OpenRocket sims before each launch, so we stop guessing.

ARC qualification campaign Next

Back to the American Rocketry Challenge with a season of experience behind us.

MIT — AeroAstro / MechE Target

Where all of this is pointed.