Aerospace engineering student teams scored 2nd and 4th place wins in the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design-Build-Fly (DBF) international
competition. The undergraduate students achieved their wins by successfully
applying all aspects of the competition’s requirements in aerodynamics, propulsion,
structures, vehicle design and manufacturing.
The 2008 competition required that teams design an electric-powered, unmanned
aircraft system capable of carrying a load of up to 14 partially-filled, half-liter
water bottles or four half-size clay bricks, or various combinations of the two, on
two flights around a predetermined course. The competition also required a flight
without a load that had to complete the course using a minimum number of batteries.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics DBF competition is widely
considered the premier international aircraft student design competition.
Students on the second place team were: team lead Ivan Kung and key members Jeff
Chu, Jason Fortner, Stephan Greening, Vishnu Jyothindran and Daren Wang. Other
team members include Tausiq Ahmed, Charlotte Bryan, Joel Chapa, Alex Cheng, Craig
Dorsey, William Duong, Akash Gandhi, Charles Gilbreath, Elisa Gravis, Matthew Jones,
Jason Lavine, May Ann Li, Garrett Mosely, Tarique Rahman, Krystal Stewart,
Paul Wedholm and Nathan Wu.
Students on the fourth place team were: team lead Martyn Hunt and key members
Ty Brockhoeft, Brady Lotz and Matias Soto. Other team members include Jeremiah Bracy,
Najeh Haq, Joaquin Herrera, Justin Kizer, Michael Skyler Lawson, Seve Rizo Patron,
Andrew Pritchard, Andres Perez Segura, Barton Starnes, and David Vargas.
Dr. Bishop and Dr. Chaput were the advisors for these students.
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About UT's Cockrell School of Engineering:
The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering ranks among the top six public engineering schools in the United States. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty elected members of the National Academy of Engineering, the School's more than 7,000 students gain exposure to the nation's finest engineering practitioners. Appropriately, the School's logo, an embellished checkmark used by the first UT engineering dean to denote high quality student work, is the nation's oldest quality symbol. The School maintains a Web site at http://www.engr.utexas.edu