Design projects that require students to build working prototypes are an invaluable supplement to traditional lectures and laboratory exercises. Additionally, allowing students to participate in challenging design projects outside of any official coursework can greatly improve their educational experience. This paper will discuss three years of such extracurricular projects at the Georgia Institute of Technology for competition in ARLISS -A Rocket Launch for International Student Satellites. Students build small "satellites" that are launched to approximately 10,000 feet. The most popular competition at ARLISS is the "Comeback" competition, where the student satellites must autonomously navigate to a target location. The project requires knowledge of numerous engineering disciplines and is a leap in complexity over the projects in which the typical student gets involved. The majority of students have come from the mechanical engineering department, but several have also been from the aerospace engineering and computer science departments. The ARLISS project has great potential to provide students with experience in multidisciplinary design, expanding upon knowledge gained in the classroom. The nature of the project provides a fun and entertaining venue for education without the constraints of a required course.
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