CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

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CITRIS Aviation Prize

Image of an eVTOL over calm water

Designing California Airlink:
Human-in-the-Loop Validation of Intercampus eVTOL Operations

The 2026–27 CITRIS Aviation Prize aims to advance air mobility by bringing University of California students, researchers and professionals together to develop a human-in-the-loop mission guidance system for California Airlink, CITRIS Aviation’s proposed advanced intercampus air transportation system.

This year’s competition challenges teams from the four CITRIS campuses to propose solutions to specific technical challenges essential to a human-in-the-loop mission guidance system for eVTOL operations within California Airlink. In Phase I, teams will pitch their approach to one of the challenge topics below.  Selected teams will advance to Phase II to develop their subsystem and collaborate with teams working on complementary topics to create an integrated California Airlink mission-guidance concept.

The competition encourages focused, high-quality technical contributions while building toward integration, demonstration and future flight-relevant testing. Rather than solving the entire California Airlink problem, each team will address a defined component and demonstrate how it fits within the broader Airlink architecture.

Overview

California Airlink is CITRIS Aviation’s proposed eVTOL network connecting the four CITRIS campuses (UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz) with Moffett Field and regional airports to enable efficient campus-to-campus travel across Northern California. Previous CITRIS Aviation Prize editions built toward this vision through autonomous UAV flight (2021–22), campus air mobility system design (2023–24), air operations system simulation (2024–25), and vertiport placement/operations concepts for Airlink (2025–26). 

The 2026–27 challenge takes the next step: moving from simulation into a working human-in-the-loop system for multi-airport eVTOL mission guidance, validated in an aircraft emulating an eVTOL. Teams will address capabilities essential to California Airlink operations, including airport selection, energy-efficient routing, weather and ADS-B integration, conflict resolution and radio communications.

Representatives from NASA’s Ames Research Center will participate in our judging panel, bringing unparalleled expertise in aerospace technology and innovation to evaluate the student proposals. The competition will conclude with final team reports and an awards ceremony, providing students the opportunity to present their innovative air mobility solutions directly to leading experts in the field.

Objective

The target concept is an eVTOL-specific electronic flight bag or mission-guidance aid (potentially implemented on a tablet or similar device) that presents pilots with the information, alerts, recommendations, and communications needed for safe, efficient California Airlink operations. The system should support – not replace – pilot decision-making through an effective human interface. Students are not expected to interface directly with aircraft avionics.

Phase I proposals should address one of the following technical topics, each scoped to allow a small team to make a substantial contribution without having to develop the complete system.

  • Topic 1: Human–Automation Interface and Pilot GUI. Design, implement and test an optimal interface system with an automation-authority and alert-arbitration framework to help onboard pilots manage the visualization of hundreds of component statuses. The system should be validated with testing for human information retention and response. The interface should support rapid comprehension and effective decision-making without overwhelming the pilot. Proposals may explore visual, auditory, or multimodal interaction and should consider human factors, workload, usability, and failure modes. The desired outcome is an effective electronic flight bag or mission-guidance concept tailored to emerging eVTOL operations.
  • Topic 2: Weather, Airspace, and Situational Awareness. Develop, implement and test a method for fusing multiple, potentially conflicting weather, airspace and safety data sources into a unified graphical display of potential flight paths. This may include weather information, ADS-B traffic data, airspace constraints, airport and vertiport information, terrain, known hazards and other relevant operational data. Teams should consider how to organize this information into a representation of the operating environment that supports pilot awareness and downstream decision-support algorithms.
  • Topic 3: Conflict Detection, Resolution, and Energy-Efficient Routing. Develop, implement and test coupled conflict-detection/resolution and energy-aware routing logic for eVTOL corridor operations based on real-word data. Potential contributions include multi-leg route planning, energy-aware routing, intermediate virtual vertiports or contingency landing locations, conflict detection and resolution, and rerouting in response to weather or traffic. Solutions should explicitly account for the human-in-the-loop nature of the system: recommendations should be understandable and actionable, with pilots retaining the authority to accept, modify or reject them.
  • Topic 4: Aviation Communications and Pilot Decision Support. Develop, implement and test a communication system that combines and parses multiple radio and audio data streams into a coherent decision-support system. The system should include guardrails for low-confidence and potentially hallucinated outputs. Proposals may address voice-radio call support, digital communications, pilot-to-pilot or pilot-to-operator information exchange, communication prioritization, and interfaces that help pilots formulate or interpret required calls. Solutions should complement, rather than replace, established aviation communication procedures and pilot authority.

The solutions provided for each topic should be modular and include protocols to exchange information between support systems onboard the aircraft and solutions being developed by other teams.

Map of Bay Area and California Central Coast with locations of UC campuses and airports as listed above marked by icons and labels, with an outline around the external locations marking the Airlink operational region.
Proposed Airlink operational region and desired service locations.

Competition Structure

There will be two phases in the competition.

Phase 1: Concept Pitch (due Nov. 23): Small teams from each campus will submit a short proposal addressing one challenge topic. Proposals should outline the problem, proposed technical approach, innovation, expected contribution to California Airlink and plan for development and demonstration.

Phase 2: Development and Integration (December through May): Selected teams will develop their proposed subsystems and collaborate with teams working on complementary topics to demonstrate their integration into a coherent human-in-the-loop California Airlink mission-guidance system. Participating teams will share final technical reports and related project materials with CITRIS Aviation and its competition partners and sponsors. Depending on the number and quality of Phase I submissions, multiple teams may be selected within a topic or topic areas may be combined.

Awards will recognize both excellence within individual technical challenges and successful contributions to the integrated California Airlink system.

Eligibility

The competition is open to student teams from the four University of California campuses affiliated with CITRIS and the Banatao Institute: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz.

Teams are required to include:

  • Two to a maximum of eight students 
  • At least one undergraduate student and no more than three graduate students
  • One postdoctoral fellow or faculty mentor as an adviser

Registration

Teams will register and submit their Phase 1 Concept Pitch through an online application form. This form requires teams to enter contact information for all members and to provide a shareable link to a PDF of their proposal.

Team Registration and Proposal Submission Form

Proposal Guidelines

Phase 1 Concept Pitch (due Nov. 23, 2026)

Concept pitch proposals must be submitted as a PDF of no more than three pages, using a minimum 10-point font and 1-inch margins. Teams must also upload an adviser-signed approval form, available through the submission portal.

Phase 1 Proposals should address: 

  • Team composition
  • Selected technical challenge topic
  • Proposed technical approach
  • Expected contribution to California Airlink mission concept
  • Human-in-the-loop considerations, as applicable 
  • Validation and demonstration strategy
  • Feasible Phase 2 development plan

Phase 2 Final Report

Final reports are submitted as a PDF of no more than 10 pages, using a minimum 10-point font size and 1-inch margins.The teams selected for Phase 2 will address the following in their final report:

  • Detailed subsystem architecture
  • Software/system implementation
  • Integration of relevant operational data sources
  • Human-machine interface and human-in-the-loop considerations
  • Validation methodology
  • Demonstration plan
  • Experimental results
  • Lessons learned
  • Recommendations for future integration into California Airlink

General Technical Requirements

Each Phase 2 subsystem should:

  • Address the selected technical challenge topic 
  • Support human-in-the-loop mission guidance and pilot/operator authority 
  • Be modular and capable of exchanging relevant information with complementary subsystems 
  • Use appropriate operational data sources and/or realistic test data 
  • Include a validation and demonstration approach relevant to the selected topic
  • Contribute toward integration into the broader California Airlink mission-guidance concept

Evaluation Criteria

Judges will base their evaluations on how well the proposed design addresses the following key criteria:

  • Technical quality and rigor 
  • Effectiveness in addressing the selected challenge topic
  • Human factors and decision support design
  • Conflict detection and resolution capability
  • Validation and demonstration approach
  • Innovation
  • Feasibility
  • Integration potential within the broader California Airlink mission concept

Timeline

  • Sept. 22, 2026: Team registration opens
  • Oct.12: Information session held 4:00–5:00 p.m. PT via Zoom (register to attend)
  • Nov. 23: Phase 1 proposals due at 6:00 p.m. PT
  • Mid-December: Phase 2 teams selected
  • January–May 2027: Monthly team progress presentation to CITRIS Aviation
  • April 16: Phase 2 final reports due 
  • Late April/early May: Demonstration and final presentation (May 3 tentatively)

Information Session

An info session for the 2026–27 CITRIS Aviation Prize will be held on October 12 at 4:00 PM PT. Register to attend.

Prizes

Exciting awards and prizes will be announced throughout the competition, including the CITRIS Aviation Excellence Award ($1,500), with many more coming!

Contact

For questions or more information, please email aviationprize@citris-uc.org.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I get academic course credit for participating in the CITRIS Aviation Prize competition?

Participating team members may be able to get academic credits in the form of capstone projects, independent study or thesis units, but you will need to coordinate this through the undergraduate or graduate departments at your respective campus. If you have questions about this, please email aviationprize@citris-uc.org.

What is the definition of a graduate student for this competition?

A graduate student is defined as any student enrolled in a non-accelerated master’s or doctoral degree program. Students in alternative post-baccalaureate programs (e.g., UC Berkeley’s Master of Engineering program) do not count toward the limit of three graduate students per team and should be listed as undergraduates.

Are teams required to include graduate students?

No. Including graduate students is encouraged but not mandatory.

May we have more than one faculty adviser?

Yes. All advisers must sign the adviser approval form found on the submission portal. If you have more than one adviser, you may compile multiple forms into a single PDF.

Will Phase 2 teams be expected to collaborate with other teams?

Yes. Teams working on complementary technical topics will be expected to collaborate during Phase 2, including defining interfaces and exchanging information as needed to demonstrate how their subsystems can contribute to an integrated California Airlink mission-guidance system.

Do teams need to develop the entire California Airlink mission-guidance system?

No. Phase 1 teams should focus on one of the technical challenge topics described above. Teams selected for Phase 2 will develop their proposed subsystem and collaborate with teams working on complementary topics to support integration into the broader human-in-the-loop California Airlink mission-guidance concept.

What type of aircraft should teams assume for their proposed solutions?

Teams should develop their solutions for eVTOL operations within the California Airlink concept. Phase 2 validation may use an aircraft or simulation environment that emulates relevant eVTOL operational characteristics.

Who will be judging the proposals?

Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of experts, including representatives from NASA Ames and CITRIS Aviation researchers with expertise in aerospace technology, transportation infrastructure and advanced air mobility systems.

How should we provide a shareable link to the application documents?

To create a shareable link to required application documents (i.e., proposals and adviser approval forms), the following process is recommended:

  • Double-check that the permissions are set to “Viewer” before pasting the link into the Google Form submission.
  • Upload your documents as a PDF to a file-sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.
  • Ensure the link is set to “Anyone with the link can view” or the equivalent in the platform.

Follow the platform’s sharing instructions to generate a shareable link.

Where can I find information on the current regulations for advanced air mobility infrastructure?

Here are some helpful resources to understand current and planned regulations:

Does the title page and references count toward the overall page limit?

No, a title page and references will not count towards the page limit as long as they don’t include any additional proposal narrative material.

Given the limited information available from companies, what strategies can we use to gather details about existing eVTOL systems?

You can use publicly available research papers, patents, conference presentations, industry reports and regulatory documents. Focus on general system requirements rather than proprietary details. We also will help obtain information from companies in Phase 2.  

Will final technical reports be shared outside of the participating teams?

Yes. Teams selected for Phase 2 agree to share their final technical reports and related project materials with CITRIS Aviation and its competition partners and sponsors.