Service
Outreach, competitions, mentorship, and committee work.
Amazon DeepRacer Competition
Faculty coach for The Citadel's team at the 2023 Senior Military College and Service Academy Warrior Week AWS DeepRacer Tournament, where cadets trained AI models to autonomously race DeepRacer cars against teams from West Point and the Naval Academy — The Citadel placed first and second. The project also led to a co-authored paper at the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference.
The Citadel Rocket Club Founder & Advisor
Started The Citadel's Rocket Club in 2020 (Dean's Office grant) and has advised it since. Took the club's high-power rocket team to the Spaceport America Cup in 2022 — the largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition in the world. The club's founding was also documented in a co-authored ASEE paper, "Formation of the Citadel Aerospace and Rocketry Student Organization."
A specific news write-up of the club itself wasn't found online — this section is based on Niksiar's own CV rather than third-party coverage.
Senior Design (Capstone) Projects
Capstone teams advised at The Citadel and Clemson University:
- Magnetic braking for a fishing casting reel, to eliminate backlash — The Citadel, Fall 2022–Spring 2023
- High-power rockets, competing at Spaceport America Cup 2022 — The Citadel, Fall 2021–Spring 2022
- Single-arm operated wheelchair (2 teams) — The Citadel, Fall 2020–Spring 2021
- Modular water tunnel with data acquisition system (3 teams) — Clemson University, Spring 2020
- BMW wax-seal work-cell cleaning, Spartanburg plant (3 teams) — Clemson University, Fall 2019
Graduate Curriculum Committee
Member of the Graduate Curriculum Committee, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Citadel (2020–present) — reviewing and shaping graduate program requirements and course offerings.
Compiled from Pooya Niksiar's CV and public sources.