QPL: Leading the way for rocketry on QUB campus

By Chloe Jacob – Interview with Caolán Boyle and Colm Daly

Queen’s Propulsion Laboratory, while an extremely new group, has a significant standing as a society on the QUB campus. They were founded in 2023, after the five primary members (Caolán, Colm, Fiyin, Alex and Noah) entered a competition ran by Airbus and placed second. Presented with a sum of money to be used for an academic purpose the group decided on utilising the money to “rejuvenate rocketry in Queen’s”. With the foundations set in the summer of 2023, QPL began that term, garnering quite a large interest from STEM students across multiple disciplines.

Daly speaks on the mission statement for QPL, regarding their overall aims for impact on campus, explaining “we really want to bring rocketry to Northern Ireland, increase stem engagement with younger generations and to raise awareness for the space sector here in Northern Ireland that’s growing.” It seems from my discussion with the group that their presence alone has provided students with pathways into aerospace not always offered to them through their education alone. Boyle speaks on the positives the society brings to its members, stating that their work is:

“The most comprehensive and near to life representation of engineering that you will find in industry, and that is exactly what employers are looking for. It’s no longer enough to leave university, even with a master’s degree in engineering because there’s so many other people that are showcasing their own skill set, furthering themselves, developing themselves professionally and personally. QPL offers that to students.”

For both Daly and Boyle personally, they discussed how QPL has been a massive component in the trajectory of their education, their placements and their work experience. The work they do develops diversification of skills due to the lack of containment within the group. You are not just working with 3 other course mates with the exact same education. Each member from different disciplines brings a wealth of knowledge and perspective otherwise unknown to their teammates. In my opinion, it is this development that becomes a clear cut differentiator for employers looking to hire young people straight from university. It is obvious that QPL are filling a gap for students in regard to applying the strong education that QUB provides into a real life situation, with conflicting ideas and approaches.

It is clear that despite the groups success in quickly establishing themselves on campus that their location in Northern Ireland has presented certain challenges, but their attitude is nothing but positive in regard to how they overcome them. In discussion of these barriers to entry for rocketry in Northern Ireland, Daly and Boyle both explained the difficulty in procuring launch sites due to their being no designated spaces for amateur rocketry in Northern Ireland. This, met with the fact that Northern Irelands aerospace industry is only beginning to grow forms an interesting dilemma for the group in terms of ease of access. Daly and Boyle explained however, that this has not hindered them massively due to resourcefulness on their parts – utilising contacts to obtain farm space for launches and working with Belfast International Airport to establish a letter of understanding.

The group has also been a driving force for the introduction of rocketry education on campus, a topic that is sorely underrepresented within curricula across the aerospace department. The group have lobbied for the introduction of rocketry into coursework and example questions, with a rocketry component also being added to a master’s programme at QUB. Boyle discusses the impact of their work stating “Institutional inertia is the best way to describe what we’ve had to overcome, and it’s very, very slow to start with, and we’re just beginning to see, I suppose this year really, the the return on our investment, so to say of our campaigning.”

Not only has the groups work reinvigorated student interest in the ever growing field, but has also garnered prospective students who hope to follow in the groups footsteps. Through their outreach programmes with year 12 to year 14 students, an influx of interest is displayed from students already asking “can I do this? You know what, what do you guys do that I can help out with?”. Boyle speaks on the importance of this impact for the continuation of the development of rocketry on campus; “It’s really really important because yes, we try to perpetuate what we’re doing here within Queens. But the only way to do that is with the fresh intake of people coming to Queens because they like what they see.”

When speaking with Daly and Boyle in regard to the process of setting up such an ambitious society, its clear that what started off as a small passion project has developed into something much larger. Daly remarked that it was “a case of ignorance is bliss, We didn’t really know how difficult it would be, and even that it would be difficult. I don’t think we ever really had any large ambitions of, like bringing it into like a massive society.”

Despite these initial aims, the society now sits with membership of over 60 people, with this number growing during recruitment season for the competition teams QPL hosts. QPL has become a staple society on campus in such a short time with a massively positive impact on campus and a welcoming nature to the group. I, as an avid STEM student, cannot wait to see how this society continues to grow!