A team of Pakistani students, from the popular Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), have won the competition against their peers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), UC Berkeley, and Stanford University.
Pakistani Team Invictus from GIKI has bagged the 2nd position in Design, Build and Fly competition, they beat MIT and Stanford, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics hosted it.
The IAA DBF is an international remote-controlled aircraft (R/C) competition sponsored by the American Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cessna Aircraft and Raytheon Missile Systems. Each year, hundreds of engineering institutes submit bids for the competition, of which only 115 have been accepted.
The competition had participation from students from all across the globe including renowned institutions such as MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. The 2021 iteration of the competition aimed to build and test a UAV with a towed sensor. All student teams were tasked to design, fabricate and demonstrate the capabilities of their unmanned radio-controlled aircraft. They design it to meet a specific mission objective.
With advanced techniques such as 3D printed parts and a pod and boom aircraft configuration, the Pakistani engineering team has begun a revolution in aircraft design. The team’s proposal for the unmanned aircraft scored 85.9. It was first best in Asia whereas it rated the second-best globally. The proposal document consisted of 60 pages of highly technical information plus fly-offs. It took place alternately in Kansas and Arizona, USA.
Pakistani engineering students are excited about the team and hope to continue to move forward and keep their country’s flag raised. In addition, the team’s achievements can bring good news to the Pakistani aviation industry.