Seven students from the University of Hawaiʻi at 惭ā苍辞补 are headed to the U.S. continent to participate in an international drone competition.
The 22nd annual will be held at St. Mary’s County Regional Airport in Maryland from June 25 to 27. The competition has two elements: the design and flight readiness presentation, and the mission demonstration. The presentation portion assesses a team’s UAS design and the team’s testing and preparedness, and the demonstration portion simulates a mission (consisting of autonomous flight, obstacle avoidance, object detection and airdrop).
More than 50 teams entered, and 36 qualified for the competition, including teams from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Canada and the U.S.
This is the fifth year the 东精影业 Drone Technologies team is participating. Its best finish was 6th in 2017 (3rd among U.S. teams), and the team aims to place higher this year.
Leiolani Malagon Bracamontes Rodriguez, a senior major, is the program manager for the 36-student team and is one of the seven students traveling to the competition.
“Just because we’re not from the mainland or we’re not from a bigger state, doesn’t mean that we don’t have brilliant minds here at 东精影业,” Bracamontes Rodriguez said. “Being able to go and represent 东精影业 惭ā苍辞补 and Hawaiʻi in general—because we’re the only one from Hawaiʻi going—it’s a great opportunity and we’re very fortunate.”
Carl Domingo, a spring 2024 graduate who is also on the traveling team, will begin working as a nuclear engineer at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard following the competition.
“A lot of people should be proud of what we do,” Domingo said. “We don’t just build drones just for fun. There are some real-world applications of what we do.”
Importance of drones
UAS, commonly known as drones, contribute to efficiency, safety and innovation across various sectors, including agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection, emergency response, environmental monitoring, delivery services and more, Shiroma said.
“Unmanned aerial systems have been increasingly important,” said Wayne Shiroma, the team’s advisor and chair and professor. “Amazon has used them for package delivery. NASA is currently using UAS’s for wildfire detection. Essentially any time where it would be cheaper or safer to send an unmanned aerial system instead of a human, that’s where these UAS’s could come into play.”
Preparing students for careers
Shiroma said that participating in the competition will help students gain practical experience, problem-solving skills, and exposure to cutting-edge technology, preparing them for future careers in the rapidly evolving field of drone technology.
“It’s more than just the engineering, which itself is very complicated, because of the interdisciplinary nature of the project,” Shiroma said. “The students also have to raise their own finances, they have design review meetings, they interact with the sponsors of the project, so, all in all, it’s a fantastic opportunity for them to get a foothold to what they’re going to be experiencing out in the industry.”
—By Marc Arakaki