The demonstration flights of this ‘design-and-build competition’ for undergraduate university teams – to produce an unmanned aircraft system for a representative humanitarian aid mission – will take place on 1 and 2 July 2015 at Elvington Airfield and the Yorkshire Air Museum.
The annual competition will be the fourth student engineering challenge event run by the Institution, joining Formula Student, the Railway Challenge and the Design Challenge.
An unmanned aircraft system – commonly known as a drone – is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. They are predominantly known for their use in military and special operations, and this has caused them to be seen in a negative and destructive light.
However UAVs have the potential to transform our lives for the better and are already being applied to commercial roles.
In disaster relief situations, UASs can transport medicines and vaccines, and retrieve medical samples, into and out of remote or otherwise inaccessible regions. They also send information from across an affected area and help build a picture of the situation direct their resources.
The UAS Challenge – which welcomes Northrop Grumman as a Gold Sponsor – will see some of the UK’s best young engineers develop the UASs before taking on other teams in a ‘fly-off’, where they will be challenged to transport a package as accurately and rapidly as possible.
John Turton, Chairman of the UAS Challenge, said: “The event has three key aims; recruitment opportunities for industry, employment opportunities for soon-to-be graduates and a proving ground for innovation.
“The Challenge will assist students to learn practical aerospace engineering skills for industry, prepare aerospace engineering students for industry employment and encourage links between industry and universities.
“The competition directly supports the Institution's objectives of inspiring young people about engineering and developing awareness of engineering and profile of the Institution. All five of the Institution's key themes Energy, Environment, Transport, Manufacturing and Education are promoted through this work.”
The universities confirmed to take part are:
- University of Bath
- University of Glasgow
- University of Hertfordshire
- Loughborough University
- University of Nottingham
- Queens University, Belfast
- University of Sheffield
- Sheffield Hallam University
- University of Southampton
- University of Surrey
- University of Swansea
- University of the West of England
Find out more about the UAS challenge.