Aerospace Engineering · UC Berkeley · Class of 2030
Joshua
Liam Towle
I design and build rockets, the flight computers that fly in them, and the tools I need to make both. This is a record of what I've built so far.
- Projects
- 08
- Photos
- 63
- Focus
- Avionics
Fig. 00Zephyr · Jun 2026Selected work
Projects
High-power rocket · L1 & L2 certification
Zephyr
My 4-inch-diameter high-power rocket, built in two iterations as the platform for my Level 1 and Level 2 certification flights.
June 2026 — Now
Minimum-diameter rocket · Mach 1 attempt
Needlepoint
A minimum-diameter high-power rocket designed to reach Mach 1 on an H-class motor, carrying onboard flight avionics.
June 2026 — Now
Rocket avionics
Custom ESP32 Flight Computer
A custom avionics board that reads pressure, temperature, and acceleration, detects flight events like apogee, and fires the parachute deployment circuits.
June 2025 — Jan 2026
University rocketry club · SEB
Space Enterprise Berkeley
I'm on Space Enterprise Berkeley's carbon fiber composites team and help with liquid rocket engine assembly and testing.
Fall 2026 — Now
Fabrication process
PCB Photolithography at Home
I turned an MSLA resin 3D printer into a UV exposure unit so I could make my own circuit boards without sending them out to a manufacturer.
June 2025 — Now
Experimental research · structural dynamics
How 3D-Printed Infill Patterns Affect Vibration
I designed a vibration test rig and Python analysis pipeline to measure how four PLA infill patterns change a part's natural frequency, damping, and vibration transmission, then co-authored a 20-page paper on the results.
June — Aug 2025
Machine build · GRBL motion control
Custom CNC Machine
A CNC machine I designed and built from repurposed 3D-printer parts, with the motor-control side wired and configured by me: external stepper drivers on an Arduino CNC shield running GRBL. It cut acrylic for the projects that came after it.
Aug — Dec 2025
First rocket · high school team
Rocket Project v1
Our first rocket: almost entirely 3D printed, with avionics I designed from scratch. The goal was a stable flight to at least 400 feet on a high-school budget.
High school
From the bench
Full gallery
About
Hands-on since high school.
I'm a first-year Aerospace Engineering student at UC Berkeley with several years of hands-on experience in embedded systems, custom PCB design, and experimental rocketry. I'm most interested in autonomous aerospace systems and hardware development.
Background & skills