A team from Texas A&M University has been named finalist in the Small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) Competition, announced the BORDERS National Center for Border Security and Immigration, a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
FLEYE SPY, a seven-member team from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M, was selected as a finalist and awarded funding to build a scaled prototype of their conceptual design during the Spring 2013 semester. They will compete against three other teams from Oklahoma State University, St. Louis University and Purdue University.
The teams were selected for funding based on a design proposal submitted in December. Each team will receive up to $30,000 to construct a functioning sUAS based on their design. This award was sponsored by DHS Science and Technology. Representatives from Homeland Security will visit Texas A&M in April for flight vehicle demonstrations.
Members of the FLEYE SPY team include Brandon Baker, Jason Bolen, Steven DeHoog, Alexander Herring, Christopher Maguire, David Lerohl and Colton Sandman, with Yogesh Babbar serving as the graduate teaching assistant and faculty advisers Col. Wayne Lutz and Dr. Thomas Strganac.
The seven students are congratulated for their initiative, energy and creativity provided. This project was an integral part of their AERO 401/AERO 402 Aircraft Capstone Design Course that takes a team through conceptual to preliminary paper designs, through wind-tunnel testing, airframe fabrication, and scaled vehicle flight tests.
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, under the auspice of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, started the Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop technologies that significantly extend the operational endurance and payload capabilities of ISR UAS. GHO, through BORDERS with the University of Arizona, sponsored the national sUAS competition.
Source: Texas A&M University