Colorado Future Leaders winner taking on aerospace challenges
CBS Colorado, along with Colorado School of Mines and Chevron, honors high school students who excel in science, technology, engineering, and math – STEM. The Future Leaders award comes with $1,000 and a profile on CBS News Colorado.
The newest winner is Ersel Serdar, a junior at Cherry Creek High School.
"Space is a huge passion of mine," Serdar said.
He's been working on space related projects for the last couple of years.
"I found that at high altitudes rockets lose a lot of efficiency, and this is a really big problem," Serdar explained.
Last year, he designed and tested a new type of nozzle that would increase efficiency.
"I thought, 'Couldn't I use the best parts of this and the best parts of this and create a new design?' And so, in short, that's what I did, and it worked," he said.
Serdar tested his nozzle prototype at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He blasted it with 1300 PSI pressurized gas.
"I was really surprised and happy," Serdar said of the results.
This year he's taken on another challenge in space exploration.
"I also found that steering rockets is this unsolved problem…that's had no good solution for 60 years now," he said.
Serdar explained that current steering mechanisms are complicated and cumbersome, so he set out to create a simpler solution.
"So, I started thinking…the way these electric systems work is basically accelerating charged particles with electric fields. But, chemical rocket exhaust, which is the majority of what's used today, has charged particles too, so couldn't I use these electric fields to try to push them to the side and create a steering effect?" Sedar said.
He designed and built a prototype and again turned to CU Boulder to help him test it. He did a second round of tests at Lockheed Martin. In these preliminary tests, the mechanism worked.
"Just such a great feeling that I had done this. It had worked, and it had not been done before," Serdar said.
The idea was new to the engineers at Lockheed Martin.
"That was a nice feeling, knowing that these industry professionals, believe in this work," he added.
Serdar's work on these projects have garnered him several awards and recognitions including the U.S. Air Force Award, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corp. Award, the Gerald Gromko Memorial Award; and, he was a finalist at the Denver Science and Engineering Fair and the Colorado State Science and Engineering Fair.
Serdar has taken his love of space even farther than these projects. He volunteers for the Denver Astronomical Society. He currently testing to be a certified operator of the 20-inch Alvan Clark and George Saegmuller telescope at the Chamberlin Observatory.
"I'm really invested in this," he said of operating the 26-foot-long telescope.
It's operated entirely manually, which means the operators have to calculate and dial in whatever there're looking for in the night sky.
"It's 130-years-old; and it still works perfectly," Serdar said. "It's one of three that exist that have ever been made."
In addition to all this, Sedar participates on his school's FIRST Robotics team. He's a Davidson Young Scholar. And he'll spend the summer taking part in the 2024 Research Science Institute at MIT.
LINK: Future Leaders Award
CBS Colorado accepted nominations for the Future Leaders Award through April 19, 2024. We will begin taking nominations for the 2024-25 school year in September.
