“Shoot for the stars!”
It’s a colloquial expression usually given to those brave and ambitious enough to pursue their dreams. While most people don’t take it literally, Tabitha Achieng, a fourth-year Electronic and Computer Engineering student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT), is an exception. Tabitha is doing exactly that—aiming for the stars, or at least 30 kilometers into the stratosphere, which is her team’s goal.
Tabitha is part of the Nakuja Project, a student-run initiative building a liquid-fuel rocket to bring satellites into orbit. The project is run by JKUAT in conjunction with the Kenya Space Agency (KSA). Since its inception in 2019, the project has launched three solid-model rockets: N1, N2, and N3. Tabitha and her teammates are currently working on the latest iteration, N4.
To join the team, Tabitha applied online and was selected based on her performance, being one of two students chosen from her class. She is part of the project’s Recovery team, responsible for developing the flight computer of the latest model. “Our team mostly works on the rocket’s hardware,” she says. “We design the circuit that runs the micro-computer, which gives instructions to the rocket.”
Tabitha is also the Recovery team leader, a role she initially found daunting. “It was overwhelming because it was my first time doing this kind of project,” she admits. “But along the way, I’ve gained courage. Now I’m in my learning zone and not freaking out as much as I was at the beginning.”
A typical week for her team involves planning weekly goals and objectives, breaking them down into tasks, researching, and sharing ideas with other project team members.
Regarding their upcoming launch, Tabitha says, “It’s a model rocket, so it won’t really go into space. Once it reaches its highest altitude, we have to program it so that a parachute is deployed, and it can land in one piece without harming anyone on its way down.”
Tabitha’s journey so far is the product of her dedication and her ability to focus on her strengths and interests. Her love for physics, math, and computers led her to choose her current degree course. “Initially, I wanted to study electrical engineering, but my KCSE points were below the cut-off, so I chose this instead,” she says. “It wasn’t electrical engineering, but at least I still got to work on computers.”
“For my final high school computer project, I created a software database. In university, I fell in love with hardware. Now, I want to integrate them both.”
Currently, Tabitha is interested in merging her love for software and hardware engineering. “For my final high school computer project, I created a software database. In university, I fell in love with hardware. Now, I want to integrate them both.”
Since joining university, Tabitha has spent her free time upskilling through online courses. She applied for an online scholarship to learn Python and took courses that combined software engineering and entrepreneurship.
Tabitha dreams of becoming a design engineer. “I want to design processes and computers,” she says.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Tabitha’s career is already on the launchpad, counting down, and ready for lift-off!
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