Sept. 1, 2020: After 8 very successful Micro Air Vehicle competitions, VFS is proud to announce a larger, more challenging competition — the Design-Build-Vertical Flight Student Competition. This page is kept for historical reference.
.jpg "Penn State Poster Session for MAV Student Challenge")
The Vertical Flight Society successfully concluded its 8th Annual Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Student Challenge. This electric-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) MAV competition seeks to encourage interest in autonomous/unmanned aircraft technology as well as small air vehicle design and fabrication. Teams may choose to design either a remotely-controlled system or a fully-autonomous system.
The competition was conducted by Society's Unmanned VTOL Committee and the VFS Montreal-Ottawa Chapter, which developed the 8th Annual MAV rules (rev 1.4. dated Jan. 28, 2020). VFS hopes that the annual MAV Student Challenges will lead to advances in this area and help to develop increased expertise by students and universities.
The 8th Annual MAV Student Challenge was originally intended to be held in conjunction with the 76th Annual Forum & Technology Display in Montreal, Quebec, on Monday May 18, 2020. However, with the rescheduling of the Annual Forum to Oct 6-8 in Virginia Beach due to COVID-19, the competition was based on the videos submitted for the "Gate 2" downselect.
The 1st Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 69 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona on May 21, 2013.
The 2nd Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 70 at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal in Montréal, Québec on May 19, 2014.
The 3rd Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 71 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia on May 4, 2015.
The 4th Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 72 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida on May 16, 2016.
The 5th Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 73 at the Fort Worth Convention Center, Ft. Worth, Texas on May 8, 2017.
The 6th Annual MAV Student Challenge was held at Forum 74 at the Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Arizona on May 14, 2018.
The 7th Annual MAV Student Challenge was held in conjunction with Forum 75 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 13, 2019, at the University of Pennsylvania's Houston Hall (Hall of Flags).
The 8th Annual MAV Student Challenge was held as a video competition due to COVID-19, instead of with Forum 76.
(Photograph by Jason L. Pereira.)
Updated May 25, 2020