AHS International Awards $12,000 in Prizes in 32nd Annual Student Design Competition
University of Maryland and Georgia Tech/METU Take Top Honors
FAIRFAX, VA – AHS International today announces the winners of the 32nd Student Design Competition: University of Maryland won first place in the graduate category and the Georgia Institute of Technology/ Middle East Technical University (METU) Team “Air Buzz” came in first in the undergraduate category. The Boeing Company sponsored the competition with $10,000 in prize money plus $2,000 in travel stipends. A total of 14 teams from around the world submitted entries in this year’s competition.
University of Maryland’s “AirEZ” winning entry in the Graduate category is a novel quadrotor-biplane-tailsitter concept with the ability to hover, transition quickly into high speed forward flight, and efficiently transition back to hover for landing. The winning teams for the graduate category are as follows:
|
Place |
University (Graduate) |
Design Team |
|
1st |
University of Maryland |
AirEZ |
|
2nd |
Georgia Tech/METU |
GT STORK |
|
3rd |
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
ADD90 |
In addition, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore’s entry, “Lakshya-IIS”, captured the Best New Entrant in the graduate category and the graduate winner of the optional hardware validation contest went to the Georgia Tech/METU Team.
In the undergraduate competition, Georgia Tech/Middle East Technical University’s “Air Buzz” winning design is a quad tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The winning undergraduate teams are as follows:
|
Place |
University (Undergrad) |
Design Team |
|
1st |
Georgia Tech/METU |
Air Buzz |
|
2nd |
The Pennsylvania State University |
ROAR |
|
3rd |
Georgia Tech/METU |
HARETC |
New River Community College, with their entry of “New River Harrier,” was recognized as the undergraduate winner of the Best New Entrant award, while The Pennsylvania State University won the undergraduate prize for winner of the optional hardware validation contest.
AHS International aims to encourage more universities from around the world to take part in this exciting endeavor and attract the best and brightest engineering students to the rotorcraft industry. The design competition rotates between AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicopters, The Boeing Company, Bell Helicopter Textron, and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
The AHS Student Design Competition, which challenges students to design a vertical lift aircraft that meets specified requirements, provides a practical exercise for engineering students at colleges and universities around the world and promotes student interest in vertical flight technology. Each of the winning teams is awarded a cash stipend, while two members of each of the first-place winning teams are invited to AHS International’s 72nd Annual Forum and Technology Display – to be held May 17-19, 2016 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA – to present the details of their designs. Members of the teams receive complimentary registration to the Forum, the vertical flight industry’s principal professional technical event, which promotes vertical flight technology advancement.
The 2015 Student Design Competition, Distributed Logistics in an Urban Setting Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, challenged students to design a small, distributed logistics delivery vehicle and its role in a large logistics system concept.
More information about the AHS Student Design Competition is available at www.vtol.org/sdc. The top-winning entries from the 32nd Student Design Competition are posted on the site, along with previous winners. This webpage also features the Request for Proposal for the 2015-2016 AHS Student Design Competition, sponsored by Bell Helicopter, which was recently released. $12,000 in total prize money will again be awarded, with submissions due in May, 2016.
The American Helicopter Society (AHS) International is the world's premier vertical flight technical society. Since its inception in 1943, AHS has been a major force in the advancement of vertical flight. The Society is the global resource for information on vertical flight technology. It provides global leadership for scientific, technical, educational and legislative initiatives that advance the state of the art of vertical flight.
This press release is also available as a pdf.
AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society
2701 Prosperity Ave, Suite 210, Fairfax, VA 22031 USA
phone: (703) 684-6777; toll free: 855-AHS-INTL; fax: (703) 739-9279
Send email; web site: www.vtol.org
