Tuesday, Apr 15, 2025 • Brian Lopez : contact

The University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Stadium, typically reserved for high school football games and other sporting events, transformed into a high-tech flight arena last weekend as engineering students from Texas and across the southeastern United States maneuvered custom-built drones in a competition of precision and innovation.

The fifth annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition, sponsored by Raytheon Technologies, featured university drone teams from Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. The competitors designed and operated drones capable of performing complex tasks, such as obstacle avoidance, target identification and precise payload delivery.

“This has been an incredible experience, allowing me to not only build and fly a drone but also experience working within a large team to meet a goal,” said Alex Andonov, a UT Arlington senior engineering student and the lead on UT Arlington’s electrical engineering team. “I learned so much about autonomous vehicles and applied my classroom knowledge to this project.”

The competition featured two main challenges: First, each drone had to scout the football field to identify the correct payload delivery zone. Then, it had to accurately deliver the payload there.

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UTA’s drone team finished second overall. It debuted an innovative new drone design built for both performance and resiliency. For the first time, UTA students used carbon plating in the frame, producing a lightweight, crash-resistant drone that better protects its internal components.

“We started work on this drone and its new tech in August, and we’ve had 13 design iterations before settling on this,” said Arian Tashakori, a UTA mechanical engineering senior and member of the mechanical engineering team. “This is our Mark 14.”

For Isaiah Boone, an electrical engineering senior, collaborating with teammates from other disciplines was a valuable learning experience.

“As an electrical engineer, I don’t know much about mechanical engineering or computer science,” Boone said. “But to make this work, I had to learn a bit of both.”

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The UTA drone team includes 15 students from across the College of Engineering. David Wetz, professor of electrical engineering and the team’s faculty advisor, said the competition gives the students a unique opportunity to solve real-world problems in a team environment.

“This industry-sponsored competition allows our students to work through engineering challenges they’ll face after graduation,” Dr. Wetz said. “Many of the teams are multidisciplinary, so it involves working with people from other disciplines and learning how to communicate those needs and requirements.”