Team Invictus from GIKI secured 2nd position in Design, Build and Fly competition, conducted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
All across the world and well-known universities like MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford’s students participated in the competition and GIKI students stood second after beating many of these institutions and brought the prize home.
The 2021 iteration of the competition was aimed to build and test a UAV with a towed sensor. All students had to design, fabricate and demonstrate capabilities of their unmanned radio controlled aircraft which is designed to meet a specific mission objective. The GIKI’s students used advanced manufacturing techniques which included 3D printed parts and a pod and boom aircraft configuration to get their design ready, as per the announcement of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute, Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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U.S Embassy of Pakistan also congratulated the students of GIKI in their post: “Congratulations to Team Invictus, a group of ?? students from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute, Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on winning second place in the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Design, Build and Fly) competition, beating renowned institutions such as MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford!”
Moreover, the proposal of the team for the unmanned aircraft was scored 85.9. It was the first best in Asia while it was rated 2nd best globally. The proposal document comprised of 60 pages of extremely technical information plus fly-offs that took place alternately in Kansas and Arizona, USA.
It will not be out of place to mention here that due to coronavirus, digital collaboration tools had to be used but that didn’t hinder the progress of the team at all as they set forth to clinch the second position.
Now, the future of the team is to be the face of the radio-controlled aircraft industry in the country. The team aims to promote aeronautics and aviation as a hobby in the country so that more people may be involved.
