The University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Stadium, typically used for high school football and other sports, became a cutting-edge drone arena last weekend as engineering students from Texas and the southeastern United States competed in a high-tech competition.
The fifth annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition, sponsored by Raytheon Technologies, brought together university teams from Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi. The students designed and operated custom drones capable of performing complex tasks, such as obstacle avoidance, target identification, and precise payload delivery.
“This experience has been incredible,” said Alex Andonov, a senior electrical engineering student at UTA and lead on the university’s electrical engineering team. “I not only got to build and fly a drone but also worked with a large team to achieve a common goal. I learned so much about autonomous vehicles and applied my classroom knowledge to this project.”
The competition consisted of two key challenges: first, each drone had to scout the football field to identify the correct payload delivery zone. Then, it had to accurately deliver the payload.
UTA’s drone team placed second overall, debuting a new design focused on performance and durability. For the first time, UTA students incorporated carbon plating in the drone’s frame, making it lightweight yet crash-resistant, which better protected the internal components.
“We started developing this drone and its new technology back in August, going through 13 design iterations before finalizing it,” said Arian Tashakori, a senior mechanical engineering student at UTA. “This is our Mark 14.”
Isaiah Boone, a senior electrical engineering student, emphasized the importance of collaborating with teammates from other fields.
“As an electrical engineer, I don’t know much about mechanical engineering or computer science,” Boone said. “But to make this work, I had to learn a bit of both.”
The UTA drone team included 15 students from various engineering disciplines. David Wetz, a professor of electrical engineering and the team’s faculty advisor, said the competition provides students with a valuable real-world problem-solving experience.
“This industry-sponsored competition gives our students the opportunity to tackle engineering challenges they will face after graduation,” Dr. Wetz said. “Many of the teams are multidisciplinary, so they also learn how to work with people from different fields and communicate effectively.”
