- A record 32 universities took part in the final fly-off event
- Diverse list of entrants, including students from Estonia, China, Italy, Netherlands, and Portugal
- Impressive level of preparedness and ability of entries
They clinched the 2025 win after having narrowly beat the reigning champions Beihang University, with newcomers from Politecnico di Milano awarded third place on their debut with the competition.
Other teams who received some of the coveted awards include University of Twente who won the Design award and Estonian Aviation Academy who scooped the Operational Supportability award.
Having started in 2014 and now in its 11th year of competition, the UAS Challenge is an annual engineering design competition where undergraduate and postgraduate students at universities around the world must design, build and fly a completely autonomous Unmanned Aerial System with a maximum 10kg to undertake a variety of flight missions.
Those who participate are able to apply their academic studies by working on an engineering project as close to the real world as possible, gaining hands-on experience of engineering design, project management and team work, enhancing their degree knowledge and making them more capable engineers when they reach industry.
As the competition ruleset allows for a wide interpretation for their UAS design, 2025 saw students fielding a great variety of different aircraft. Notable entrants this year include those launched with the help of self-designed catapult systems from Beihang University and Heriot-Watt University, together with an exotic VTOL tailsitter design from the Estonian Aviation Academy that managed to complete a successful autonomous flight and payload drop; another first for the competition.
The preparedness and enthusiasm of the students this year was particularly of note, with many teams having brought fully working and tested aircraft to the competition that meant that the scrutineering process started earlier than usual.
Teams braved changing weather conditions across the week, including searing heat, rain and winds reaching over 20 knots to fly their UAS, leading to a record fourteen flights on the first full day and extended flight times to accommodate them later in the week.
“After a fantastic 10th anniversary last year with the highest number of teams we’ve ever seen at an event, it’s great that the event is still growing, with over 30 teams taking part this year,” said Paul Lloyd, UAS Chair. “The standard we’ve seen this year has been a tremendous step up, with aircraft ready to go from the moment they’ve arrived and flying all the way up to the wire on the final day. Everyone should be very proud of their work this year.”
New entrants to the competition include student teams from University of Genova, Politechnico di Milano, University College Dublin, University of Central Lancashire, and NMITE, whose team in particular consisted of students in their foundation and first years of study, highlighting the growing appeal of the competition from both a learning and competitive standpoint.
The individual award winners from this year’s competition are as follows:
- Grand Champions: Team Bath Drones, University of Bath
- Runners Up: Beihang Aeromodelling Team, Beihang University
- Third Place: Fly-Mi, Politecnico Di Milano
- Innovation Award: Team Blue Sparrow, Estonian Aviation Academy
- Design Award: DroneTeam Twente, University of Twente
- Simulation Award: Gryphon Arrows, University of Leeds
- Scrutineering Award: Team Bath Drones, University of Bath
- Safety Award: Fly-Mi, Politecnico Di Milano
- Environmental Award: Team Bath Drones, University of Bath
- Airworthiness Award: UCD UAV Team, University College Dublin
- Operational Supportability Award: Team Blue Sparrow, Estonian Aviation Academy
- Business Proposition Award: UCD UAV Team, University College Dublin
- Most Promise Award: Team Aero-Watt, Heriot-Watt University
- Advancement Award: DOPE Aerospace, University of Genova
- Media and Engagement Award: DroneTeam Twente, University of Twente
Full scoring for all the individual event will be available shortly on the UAS Challenge website.
“The UAS Challenge is an important educational event in our challenge calendar and brings together practical learning aside students’ academic achievements,” remarked Joyce Achampong, Associate Director of Impact at the IMechE.
“It's been my first year here and all the staff and volunteers have been fantastic, I love the camaraderie between the students, and it’s been a truly international event with so many teams coming from overseas. This is exactly what we want to do with these events; bringing people together to network and learn, and truly showing the impact of the IMechE’s efforts in improving the world through engineering.”
The full list of teams who competed at the fly-off event this year is as follows:
- Beihang Aeromodelling Team - Beihang University
- Pheonix - Coventry University
- Cranfield UIAS society - Cranfield University
- DMU Merlin - De Montfort University
- Blue Sparrow - Estonian Aviation Academy
- Aero Watt - Heriot Watt University
- Vefa Aviation - Istanbul Technical University
- Loughborough UAV - Loughborough University
- Hawk of Hereford - NMITE
- Fly-Mi - Politecnico di Milano
- HORUS UPV - Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)
- Caelus - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
- Haggis Aerospace - The University of Dundee
- UCD UAV Team - University College Dublin
- UCL Team Nova 1 - University College London (UCL)
- UCL Team Nova 2 - University College London (UCL)
- AutoMec - University of Aveiro
- Team Bath Drones - University of Bath
- AirOne - University of Bologna
- Big Abatha/ Team buds - University of Bristol
- Project ARGO - University of Leicester
- Avis Drone Labs - University of Sheffield
- Team Alpha Southampton - University of Southampton
- Peryton Flamingo - University of Surrey
- UWE AeroSoc - University of the West England, Bristol
- DroneTeam Twente - University of Twente
- DOPE Aerospace - Università degli studi di Genova
- endeavour Rankine - University of Edinburgh
- ITU Albatros UAV Team - Istanbul Technical University
- LAGARI UAV TEAM - YILDIZ TECHNICAL UNIVERSTY
- Altitude - University of Central Lancashire
- USW - University of South Wales
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is grateful for the continued support of partners Ansys, Leonardo, Callen-Lenz, and BAE Systems/FalconWorks and exhibitor Babcock, as well as the time and expertise of the small army of over eighty volunteers working to run the event.
The IMechE would also like to recognise the hard work of some of our volunteers who have contributed their time and expertise each year since the inaugural event in 2014, who are:
- Paul Lloyd – UAS Challenge Chair
- Lambert Dopping-Heppenstal – Head Judge
- Rod Williams – Head Scrutineer
- Bernice Robinson – Head of Repair
- Chris Bradbury – Flight Line Office
- Stephen Phillips – Scrutineer
- John Richard – Scrutineer
- Keith Rigby – Judge
- Donough Wilson – Judge
A final thank you goes to the British Model Flying Association Buckminster for once again hosting the event, and all the students who took part in the challenge this year.
After the summer break, the UAS Challenge will reopen for registration in October 2024 with an updated ruleset, and we look forward to welcoming all new and returning teams for another exciting year of the competition.