News Release

Mechanical engineering student awarded Brooke Owens Fellowship

San Diego, Calif., Jan. 24, 2020 -- Surya Vohra, a mechanical engineering student at UC San Diego, has been selected as a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellow. The Fellowship is awarded to exceptional undergraduate women in aerospace. Vohra is one of 40 fellows selected from among 566 applicants from 290 universities in 15 different countries. This marks the fourth year—since the beginning of the Brooke Owens Fellow program—that a UC San Diego engineering student has been awarded a fellowship.

Vohra serves as president of the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, while also being a propulsion design engineer for the group, which was the first collegiate team to successfully design, test, and launch a 3D-printed rocket engine. This year, SEDS is hoping to launch their liquid-fueled rocket, which also uses a 3D-printed engine, more than 6 miles in the atmosphere, again becoming the first collegiate team to perform this feat.

In addition to her mechanical engineering coursework and involvement with SEDS, Vohra was selected as a Gordon Scholar through UC San Diego’s Gordon Center for Engineering Leadership, and completed a year-long program honing leadership skills with a focus on entrepreneurship in the commercial space industry.

Outside of university, she has interned at UCLA’s MATRIX Laboratory, exploring hypersonic vehicle materials; with Additive Rocket Corporation running chemical kinetics simulations; and with Stellar Exploration, optimizing spacecraft propulsion system test and design. This quarter, she’s interning with Blue Origin as a Test Engineering Intern in Van Horn, Texas.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Vohra earned a paid internship at Rocket Lab's propulsion manufacturing team, along with mentorship from senior and executive-level members of space and aviation companies.

Outside of her space interests, Vohra enjoys boxing, writing stand-up comedy, shooting pictures, and hunting for the best iced oat latte she can find.

Media Contacts

Katherine Connor
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-8374
khconnor@ucsd.edu