<p>[Find</a> Your Passion: Rocket Girl - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://www.ua.edu/features/findyourpassion/rocketgirl.html]Find”>http://www.ua.edu/features/findyourpassion/rocketgirl.html)</p>
<p>*Shelby Cochran’s life has been inundated with aerospace engineering since she was a little girl.</p>
<p>With a long family history in aviation and aerodynamics and growing up in NASA’s shadow in Huntsville, Cochran’s interest in flight began in middle school. It was there, at Alabama Avenue Middle School, where she won a contest with her essay about bone-density loss among orbiting astronauts. She was awarded a trip to Houston, where she toured NASA facilities and met students with similar space interests.</p>
<p>As a high-school senior, Cochran was invited to a University of Alabama student-recruitment event in her hometown. Dr. Chuck Karr, dean of the College of Engineering, was the guest speaker.</p>
<p>“I was impressed not only with the University of which he spoke, but also with the man he was,” says Cochran. “He was more than glad to speak to me after the program and spoke as if he sincerely wanted me at UA in his college.”</p>
<p>*
~snipped~</p>
<p>*While enrolled in an introductory aerospace class in the fall of 2010, Cochran says she was challenged by Hubner with designing, building and flying a glider meeting certain criteria. The wingspan had a maximum length; it had to be light, but it also had to fly as far as possible without injuring its tiny passenger an egg.</p>
<p>Chosen by Hubner as one of six team captains, Cochran and her team of six other students built the winning aircraft.</p>
<p>“I was proud of my team,” says Cochran. “Our glider made me realize that I love hands-on projects and left me hungry for more ways to put my studies to good use. I was referred to look into this new rocket team some of the mechanical engineering girls were putting together.”</p>
<p>That new team, the Rocket Girls, was UA’s first-ever female rocket group. Focused on NASA’s University Student Launch Initiative competition, the team’s challenge was to design, build and safely launch a reusable rocket. The rocket had to reach, but not exceed, a one-mile altitude. Reports, designs, test flights and outreach events were all part of the competition, culminating with an April launch. *</p>
<p>~snipped~</p>