We're a student-powered research lab at Cal Poly Pomona building the systems that make small, resilient robots and spacecraft smarter: from drone platforms and docking payloads to lightweight cryptography, BCI interfaces, and CubeSat compute.

Founded by Dr. Mohamed El-Hadedy Aly (Electrical & Computer Engineering) at Cal Poly Pomona, RSCL combines rigorous engineering with hands-on flight and hardware testing. Dr. Aly leads the lab's work at the intersection of UAV reliability, adaptive hardware/software, and secure computing for space and defense applications.

What we're building

Recognition & wins

• NASA MINDS (MUREP Innovative New Designs for Space) — Cal Poly Pomona teams, including RSCL-mentored work, have been recognized by NASA MINDS, with the 2024 list noting CPP's Trappist_1e entry among awardees.
• CPP Engineering Project Symposium & Showcase — Our students present annually at the college-wide Project Symposium & Showcase, where 450+ students demonstrate capstone and research results to the public and industry. Multiple RSCL projects have been featured.

How we work

• Learn by building. Every effort moves through a staged test plan (bench → ground → tethered/flight or vacuum) with safety interlocks and hard aborts.
• Open, applied research. We focus on practical systems: telemetry you can trust, repeatable procedures, and clean handoffs between teams.
• Interdisciplinary by design. Students from ECE, AE, CS, ME and beyond collaborate on controls, compute, structures, power, and comms — guided by faculty mentorship.

Get involved

Whether you're into autonomy, secure compute, flight testing, or space systems, there's a build thread for you. RSCL welcomes motivated students and collaborators from academia and industry.