In a first for the QUT-CSIRO UAV Challenge, teams from two Queensland high schools have shared first place.
The joint winners are the Cheeky Mangoz from Toowoomba Christian College and the Calamvale Predators from Calamvale Community College.
They share the combined first and second prizemoney in the Queensland Government Airborne Delivery Challenge, receiving $3500 each.
The Toowoomba Christian College students, who built their own UAV (drone) rather than adapt a commercially available one, also took out the $2000 Rookie Award as a team of first-time entrants, while the Calamvale team received the Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award for their professionalism and team attitude.
Now in its 11th year, the UAV Challenge gives young aerial roboticists of the future a chance to think creatively, work in teams and develop the skills they will need to forge a career and lead the industry.
Held at Calvert west of Ipswich on September 26-27, the challenge saw 10 teams of students from Australia, the US, Malaysia and Poland use their remotely controlled unmanned aircraft to drop a life-saving medical package to ‘Outback Joe’ who was suffering a severe allergic reaction.
Head judge and QUT robotics Professor Jonathan Roberts said there was record accuracy in the team drops this year.
“The presentations were excellent and out of 30 drops, only one was in the out-of-bounds area,” he said.
Third place and the $1000 prize went to Air Iris, from Mueller College in Rothwell. They were also the first team since the challenge began to use a winch on their UAV to lower the medical package to Outback Joe.
During the two days of the competition, the students also took part in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) activities and games, and learnt more about the pathways available for a STEM career.
The UAV challenge was co-organised by QUT (Australian Centre for Robotic Vision) and CSIRO’s Data61.
Sponsors were the Queensland Government, Boeing, Insitu Pacific, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group, and MathWorks.
Media contact:
Karen Milliner, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841 or k.milliner@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901 or media@qut.edu.au
