This is a guest student blog about Mia Claire Chang, written by Hansini Ramachandran.
Mia is a sophomore studying Astronautical Engineering at USC from San Diego, California. She was always interested in rockets, space systems, and furthering humanity’s reach in space, so when someone came into her ASTE 101:Intro to Astronautics class and presented about the Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (RPL), she was quick to join. She loves not only that it is so accessible, with no extra interview process, but that it is not a competitive team. USC’s RPL only competes against its previous records (such as being the first collegiate team to send a rocket to space)!
RPL has shaped her collegiate experience from leadership opportunities to interdisciplinary collaborations and bonding. She started off contributing to composites work — laying up the rocket and hand-cutting plies. As she stayed in the club, she continued to learn about everything space systems and rockets – how do you design a motor, what is thrust, what structures make up a rocket? Noticing the overlap in content in what she learned through hands-on experience at RPL and the theoretical class material in ASTE280: Foundations of Astronautical Engineering, she emphasizes that clubs allow you to learn the same things faster and through doing. This makes understanding the mathematical and theoretical why’s both easier and more satisfying. She has been on many RPL trips such as one in a facility in Victorville to cast a rocket propellant. While these trips can be from early 6am – 8pm, she finds them a great bonding and learning experience. At the facility, they learn the entire process of mixing, curing, and casting propellant.
Mia is also involved in the media team where she helps design merchandise (shirts, patches, stickers, etc) for every rocket. She is happy to have taken on a huge presence in RPL being the resident artist!
Mia explains that “the club is a huge community that I am a part of and feel like I belong to.” Inside RPL, she is a part of RPL ladies, a group that hosts events for women in the club. The reason why she stuck around so long is because she loves everyone on a team and sees everyone as a friend. While it can be overwhelming at first with so many people and moving parts, bonding events like picnics, socials, and trips help form a sense of community. Yes, you read that right; engineers at USC’s RPL don’t just build the best rockets — they have fun too! Overall, she says it is a place where everyone is very supportive of each other.
Outside of RPL, Mia is involved in the Advanced Spacecraft Propulsion and Energy Library (ASPEN). This research-based AME club has the unique opportunity to work with vacuum chambers and develops a thruster using adamantine as its solid propellant. They present their work yearly at conferences.
Mia grew up doing art. She’s dabbled in pencil/paper, acrylic, watercolor, oil, and digital mediums. Continuing this passion, she worked as an illustrator for the art and design team of Daily Trojan. She worked digital art pieces that were published to supplement an article once a week. One thing she was sure of when coming to college was that she wanted to still have art in her life. We both agree that USC gives us space and encourages us to embrace our non-engineering identities.
In the future, Mia hopes to focus on the propulsion side of engineering. As an ASTE major, she is interested in space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. She hopes to complete a masters in Astronautical Engineering through the progressive degree program (PDP) and keep the option of a PhD open as well. This summer, she is excited to intern at Castelion, a small start up, as a composites engineering intern.
