It's been really fun to see my ideas come to life and being able to fly my own aircraft

One of my favourite parts about being an engineering student has been participating in Project Sunride. This is our university's rocketry team and I've been in it for two years now. My main role in Project Sunride has been with the thermo-analysis of our engine. Particularly I'm in the subteam of the Sunfire engine, so you may have seen some videos of how our engine works. It's really cool, very purple, which is what we like to see.

I think one of the best parts of being an engineering student is being able to show my creativity and how I think about systems at large. A lot of the stuff that we can see here are things that we've built as students we have a module that's recurring and we get to build different aircraft systems and this is something that I enjoy because then I get to be in the workshop and work with different materials like 3D printers, wood and all the resources are available for us to make our ideas come to life. It's a great way to develop your leadership skills and to learn to communicate with other people which is obviously very useful in industry.

I've had this question a lot: 'are there many girls in Aerospace?' 'is it a welcoming space?' - part of why I've  enjoyed Project Sunride so much is because I think they try very hard to make it a diverse community where everyone can make their mark.

It's been really fun to see my ideas come to life and being able to fly my own aircraft.

Denisse interviewed in March 2025.