December 1st, 2024

Last week, our Project Manager Kyle Deck talked about his transformation from a reserved freshman into a stoic leader through his journey at UCI thanks to the UCI Rocket Project – Liquids team. Kyle’s introduction to rocketry came through an invitation from our former Safety Officer Michael Ross to watch solid rockets launch at Lucerne Valley – an experience that opened his perspective to the world of rocketry. Kyle’s analytical mindset to engineering excellence has made him an invaluable leader in the project’s pursuit to break the collegiate methalox world record.

Over the past 3 years, Kyle has leveraged his college experience by placing himself in situations that have led to invaluable experiences. Within the interview, he highlights three ‘standout memories’ within the project; among the highlights is the saga of finding PTR (our first rocket). He also discusses winning the Stella Zhang New Venture Competition and the Butterworth Design Competition, receiving over $40,000, only made possible by having the perfect team of people. Combining his technical expertise and these formative experiences, Kyle harnesses his understanding of team dynamics to lead the team towards the launch of UCI’s second liquid rocket, MOCH4, in May 2025.

Looking ahead, Kyle aims to continue focusing on projects where he has creative freedom in team building and technical execution. Utilizing the lessons he learned from the project, he is committed to building meaningful solutions driven by an engineering and business strategy approach to building products. His future goals align with his proven ability to identify opportunities, build effective teams, and deliver impressive results.

Do you have a favorite experience being on the project that feels like a big accomplishment?

I have three standout moments. First, witnessing the Vertical Test Fire (VTF) for the first time was incredible. I’m excited not only to return for future VTFs but to see them performed on systems I’ve helped develop. I especially look forward to others experiencing that for the first time – feeling it in your chest and realizing ‘this is real, this is our hard work in action.’ Second was the launch itself – a fantastic but bittersweet experience since we lost the rocket. The third was the weekend after, when we went searching for it. Finding the camera mount I built was miraculous enough, but to look over my shoulder and find the rocket at the very end of the day made it one of the best days I’ve had on the project. I honestly think five different miracles happened that day. I’m hoping for more amazing experiences as I finish my time with the project. Being out there, seeing it all happen – it’s invaluable. I owe everything to this project and similar organizations on campus. While the rocket project has a high barrier to entry, there’s good reason for that, and I’m incredibly proud of the team we have now.

What would you say to an aspiring engineer who is deep in the weeds with their classes and just doing this intense learning that is not going out there networking?

A lot of engineers do not have those skills. At least for me, I just had to put myself out there to know that. My freshman year when I struggled with these things, I had to look outward and to look at different possibilities for what I could do so I kind of knew coming into UCI, I wanted to make the most of it. I knew that the people here that you meet and all the opportunities are really the value of a campus like this. So the classes are one thing but I always kind of knew in the back of my head that there was way more to offer than that. […]. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, I know it’s not an easy thing but you’ll look back and be glad that you did that. Take the opportunities that are out there. You’re here, you’re paying money to be here, you might as well take advantage of everything that comes your way.

Can you tell us a little more about your business background and what interests you about entrepreneurship?

Winning NVC and Butterworth with Sentinel this past June was an incredible experience. We had the perfect team and walked away with $40,000. What really drew me to this type of project was realizing that in engineering, while there’s tremendous value in understanding the fundamentals and building things, ultimately you need to create something people will actually use.

Where do you see yourself in the next ten years? What is the dream?

I want to be working on cool stuff, building things on both the engineering and business side. I want to make sure that whatever we’re building, whether it’s me or a team of people, we’re building the right things and not wasting our time. I’m sure there will be a lot of ups and downs, but ultimately, if I have the freedom to be able to build what I want, when I want, with who I want, and where I want, while solving problems that the world needs solved, that’s the dream.