Drone game: UH engineering students in an international competition

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Seven students of the University of Hawaii from Mānoa College of Engineering will travel to the American continent to compete in an international drone competition.

22nd edition of Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) The competition will take place at the St. Regional Airport. Mary’s County, Maryland, June 25–27. The competition consists of two elements: a design and flight readiness presentation and a mission demonstration. The presentation part evaluates the team’s work UAS design and testing and readiness of the team, and the demonstration part simulates the mission (consisting of autonomous flight, obstacle avoidance, object detection and airdrop).

Over 50 teams registered and 36 qualified for the competition, including teams from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Canada and the USA

This is already the fifth year UH The Drone Technologies team is taking part in it. Its best result was 6th place in 2017 (3rd place among US teams), and this year the team aims to take a higher place.

Leiolani Malagon Bracamontes Rodriguez, a senior mechanical engineering major, is the program manager for the 36-member team and one of seven students competing in the competition.

“Just because we’re not from the mainland or from a larger state doesn’t mean we don’t have brilliant minds here. UHBracamontes Rodriguez said. “The opportunity to go and represent UH Mānoa i Hawaii at all – because we are the only ones with Hawaii we will go – it is a great opportunity and we are very happy.”

Carl Domingo, a spring 2024 computer engineering major who is also a member of the traveling team, will begin working as a nuclear engineer at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard after the competition.

“A lot of people should be proud of what we do,” Domingo said. “We don’t build drones just for fun. There are some real-world applications for what we do.”

The importance of drones

UAScommonly known as drones, they contribute to efficiency, safety and innovation in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection, emergency response, environmental monitoring, delivery services and more, Shiroma said.

“Unmanned aircraft systems are becoming increasingly important,” said Wayne Shiroma, team advisor and chair and professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Amazon used them to deliver packages. NASA currently using UASis used to detect fires. Basically, whenever it would be cheaper or safer to send an unmanned aerial system instead of a human, that’s when UASmay come into play.”

Preparing students for a professional career

Shiroma said participating in the competition will help students gain hands-on experience, problem-solving skills and exposure to cutting-edge technology, preparing them for future careers in the rapidly growing field of drone technology.

“It’s more than just engineering, which itself is very complex due to the interdisciplinary nature of the project,” Shiroma said. “Students also have to fundraise on their own, attend project review meetings, engage with project sponsors, so overall it’s a fantastic opportunity for them to find out who they will be experiencing in the industry.”

-By Marek Arakaki