CITRIS Aviation, a multicampus research initiative of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) at the University of California (UC), has selected four student teams to compete in Phase 2 of the 2024–25 CITRIS Aviation Prize design contest.
Building on the 2023–24 competition, which focused on conceptual designs for an air transportation network connecting the four CITRIS campuses, this year’s challenge tasks the teams to develop air operations simulation software for the proposed system.
“We are thrilled that the work of the teams will contribute to the advancement of air mobility and a particular instantiation, exploring flights between the CITRIS campuses at Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Merced and Davis,” said Alexandre Bayen, director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, associate provost for the Berkeley Space Center, and Liao-Cho Innovation Endowed Chair and professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley.
The first phase of the competition drew submissions from multidisciplinary teams that included undergraduate and graduate students, with participants representing fields such as aerospace engineering, computer science, environmental engineering and robotics. Submissions were evaluated for their creativity, feasibility, and potential to address the technical and logistical challenges of intercampus air transportation.
The following four teams will move on to Phase 2:
- UC Berkeley:
- Team members: Jorge Duarte Urbina, Jordan Keoki Kam, Atiila Kharobo, Andrew Park, Rishi Kumar Srinivasan
- Advisers: Vishwanath Bulusu, Lecturer of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Raja Sengupta, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- UC Davis:
- Team members: Oliver Austin, Shreya Chandra, Yemikael Dawit, Nicolas Holasek, Rachel Long, Orfeas Magoulas
- Advisers: Camli Badrya, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Zhaodan Kong, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Peng Wei, Postdoctoral Researcher of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- UC Merced:
- Team members: Yael Xavier Andujar, Monica Cruz Gaspar, Ana Hernandez, Kyra Ruiz, Randy Serrano
- Adviser: Francesco Danzi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
- UC Santa Cruz:
- Team members: Alexander Aghili, Andre Aledia, Parsh Gandhi, Zoe La Clair, Jose Peralta, Christine Perez, Eric Vin
- Adviser: Daniel Fremont, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
In the coming months, the teams will refine their proposals into comprehensive designs, with mentorship from experts in the aviation industry and academia. They will also participate in regular project review meetings to receive feedback and gain insights into professional engineering practices.
“Our UC Davis team is very excited to participate in the competition,” said Kong. “Our vision is to use this competition as a catalyst to inspire our students to work on problems of significant societal impact, to foster collaborations with researchers from other UC campuses, and, hopefully, to promote northern California as an advanced air mobility hub.”
This year’s competition introduces new awards to recognize excellence in the teams’ designs, including the Atech Award for Most Innovative Design for Air Mobility, which will be accompanied by a $6,000 cash prize.
“Atech is very proud to be part of such a great initiative led by CITRIS,” said Mauro do Santo Junior, head of innovation and engineering at Atech, an Embraer’s group company that develops technology solutions for air traffic management, cybersecurity, instrumentation and control systems, and more. “The quality of the projects and the level of detail taken into account exceed our expectations.
“We would like to congratulate all the teams for the hard work and we are looking forward to the next steps of this competition.”
Other confirmed sponsors include electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developers Archer Aviation and Supernal, and software developer MathWorks.
The competition will culminate in late spring 2025, when the teams present their final designs to a panel of judges from CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, the NASA Ames Research Center, and sponsoring companies and organizations. The winning presentations will be assessed on innovation, environmental impact and integration with existing transportation systems.
Now in its third iteration, the CITRIS Aviation Prize launched in 2021 with a mission to advance the science and design of sustainable air mobility.
“The air operations system that the teams are developing is a critical component of the envisioned air mobility infrastructure designed during last year’s competition, paving the way to an eventual campus-to-campus air transportation system for the University of California,” said Ricardo Sanfelice, director of CITRIS Aviation and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Cruz.
To learn more about the competition and stay updated on the teams’ progress, please visit the CITRIS Aviation Prize webpage.