Built by people. For people.

Experience that mirrors industry

Our mission is to provide hands-on engineering experience that mirrors industry practice, emphasizing reliability, manufacturability and performance under real-world constraints.

Members take a project through the complete design, build and test cycle, and come out with practical skills in mechanical design, systems integration, project management and technical communication. The aim is simple: to move from the classroom to industry with confidence.

From one car to four teams

1. Fall 2024

   MechaEagles founded

   Founded at Boston College as a Baja SAE racing and engineering team.

2. 2025–26

   Divisions and subteams

   The team organizes into Science, Programmatics and Engineering divisions, with subteams for suspension, steering, roll cage, drivetrain and fabrication.

3. 2026–27

   Four engineering teams

   MechaEagles becomes four teams: Baja SAE, AeroEagles, Combat Robotics and AI Safety.

4. 14 Sep 2026

   NASA Student Launch proposal

   AeroEagles submits its NASA Student Launch 2027 proposal for the Baldwin-1 mission.

5. 19 Sep 2026

   First high-power launch day

   Three rockets flown, two recovered, one Level 1 certification earned.

Engineering at Boston College is new, and growing fast

Boston College has launched its first undergraduate engineering degree and invested more than $300 million in new science and engineering infrastructure, including the 150,000-square-foot facility at 245 Beacon Street, with collaborative labs, maker spaces and design studios for applied, project-based learning.

Student-led technical organizations turn that investment into hands-on experience. That's the gap MechaEagles is here to fill.

Our four engineering teams

• Baja SAEWe design, build and race a single-seat off-road vehicle for the Baja SAE collegiate series: frame, suspension, steering, braking and drivetrain, built by students in Boston College's shops.
• AeroEaglesAeroEagles will design, manufacture, test, launch and safely recover a reusable high-powered rocket carrying an autonomous payload. After landing, the payload finds a passive visual target and measures its distance without GPS.
• Combat RoboticsWe design, manufacture, program and compete combat robots: weapons, drive systems and armor that have to survive the arena.
• AI SafetyWe study how to make AI systems safe and accountable through technical research, responsible development practice and governance.

An interdisciplinary approach

A rocket needs avionics and structures. A competition entry needs schedules and sponsors. An AI safety project needs research and governance. Engineers and Programmatics work on the same organization, and the machine is the second thing we build.

• People in every decision

  We treat drivers, teammates and the communities around us as stakeholders in every design choice. Safety, clarity and inclusion sit alongside performance.

• Education and outreach

  Hands-on workshops and school visits make engineering feel reachable long before college. AeroEagles is planning water-rocket launches and design challenges with public high schools in Roxbury and Dorchester, and an event with the Boston Children's Museum.

• Responsible engineering

  Material choices aren't only about strength and weight. We weigh sourcing, fabrication impact, service life and end-of-life, and every rocket program runs on a written safety plan, a hazard analysis and a team safety agreement.

• Accountability

  Clear ownership, documented decisions and honest retrospectives. We publish failures alongside wins, like the rocket we lost on our first launch day and what we changed because of it.

Where we're heading

As engineering at Boston College grows, we want MechaEagles to become a unifying organization that supports, coordinates and elevates applied engineering across campus.

Nearest on the horizon is NASA Student Launch 2027, the program AeroEagles' Baldwin-1 is being designed for.