2024–25 CITRIS Aviation Prize - CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

Design the Future of UC Air Mobility:
Air Operations System Development

The 2024–25 CITRIS Aviation Prize aimed to advance air mobility by bringing University of California students, researchers and professionals together to design critical aviation simulations and subsystems, integrating air transit into campus transportation networks and empowering efficient intercampus travel.

This competition was open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the UC campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz.

We are grateful to Atech, DART, Archer Aviation, MathWorks and Supernal for their support of the 2024–25 Aviation Prize.

Read about the winners of the 2024–25 CITRIS Aviation Prize

Overview

The first CITRIS Aviation Prize, launched in 2021, challenged student teams to develop a long-distance, fully autonomous flight with a small UAV, culminating in a successful demonstration. Building on this achievement, the 2023–24 competition envisioned a forward-looking air mobility system for the university, incorporating advanced air mobility (AAM) technology to revolutionize transportation within and among campuses.

The 2024–25 competition continues an exciting multiyear journey to advance campus air mobility. It tasked student teams to develop air operations system simulation software for the proposed University of California air mobility system, paving the way for efficient campus-to-campus travel across the UC system.

Objective

The goal of the competition was to:

Design a campus interconnectivity simulation for transportation management, demonstrating seamless integration of air and ground transportation systems
Develop high-level guidance, navigation and flight scheduling algorithms tailored for the top three electric eVTOL vehicle systems in the market, optimizing energy dynamics and safety within campus environments, and incorporate them in the simulation system
Formulate an implementation and operation plan for the developed air operations system

The emphasis of the project was on simulation software that enables testing the newly developed concepts.

Competition Structure

There were two phases in the competition.

Phase 1: Design Proposal (due Nov. 21; note extended deadline)

Interested teams from each campus, including teams with members from multiple campuses, submit proposals outlining their vision toward the competition’s objective.
A panel of expert judges reviews the proposals and recommends a number of teams to move on to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Detailed Design and Presentation (December through May)

Selected teams develop detailed designs incorporating feedback from Phase 1.
Teams meet monthly with CITRIS Aviation for design updates.
Teams provide a design showcase midway through the process.
Teams offer their final design presentations for judging.

Eligibility

The competition was 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 were 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

Proposal Guidelines

Proposals must be submitted as a PDF using a minimum 10-point font size with 1-inch margins. Phase 1 proposals are limited to three pages, and Phase 2 proposals are limited to 10 pages. All material associated with proposals and reports should fit within these page limitations, but a list of bibliographical references will not count toward the limit.
You will be required to submit an approval form signed by your adviser, which you can download from the submission portal.

Proposals outlined the team’s vision for campus interconnectivity software and eVTOL guidance, navigation and control (GNC) systems, including the following elements:

Overview of required features, which include:
1. Campus interconnectivity software for transportation management
2. Guidance, navigation and control systems for the top three eVTOL vehicle systems
Preliminary justification for the selection of these features, e.g., maximizing potential for intercampus connectivity, ease of integration with existing infrastructure
Preliminary plans for addressing each of the required features, including any initial renderings or conceptual designs

Proposals selected for Phase 2 included the following elements:

Detailed description of required features for Phase 1
1. Comprehensive details on the campus interconnectivity software design, including its architecture and functionality
2. In-depth description of the guidance, navigation and control systems for eVTOL vehicles, including technical specifications and safety protocols
An implementation plan that is aligned and compatible with existing and planned local campus infrastructure, including:
1. Identification of key stakeholders, required regulatory changes, environmental impacts, funding strategies and timelines
2. An estimated cost and timeline for the construction of the proposed designs
3. Strategies for gathering feedback from potential users and stakeholders to refine and optimize the systems

Evaluation Criteria

Judges based their evaluations on how well the proposed design addressed the following key criteria:

Support of interconnectivity between the four CITRIS campuses
Utility and efficiency of proposed transportation solutions
Feasibility of implementation and integration with existing campus transportation infrastructure
Sustainability and minimization of environmental impact
Overall innovation of proposed vision
Cost-effectiveness of estimated budget (Phase 2 only)

Timeline

Sept. 9, 2024: Team registration opened
Oct. 1: Information session from 5–5:45 p.m.
Nov. 21: Phase 1 proposals due (note extended deadline)
Dec. 9: Phase 1 winners announced
January–May 2025: Monthly presentations to CITRIS Aviation for Phase 1 finalists
Mid-March: Midpoint presentations
Mid-April: Phase 2 reports due
Late April: Final presentations, judging and awards ceremony

Information Session

An online info session was offered Tuesday, Oct. 1. A captioned video of that presentation is now available:

Prizes

At the end of the competition, the following prizes were awarded to participating teams:

Atech Award for Most Innovative Design for Air Mobility ($6,000)
DART Community Integration Award ($6,000)
CITRIS Aviation Award for Most Comprehensive Software Design ($3,000)
CITRIS Aviation Excellence Award ($3,000)

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.

Do teams need to develop the entire air mobility system, including infrastructure?

This year’s focus is on the development of simulation software for air operations systems. Teams should design components that can integrate into existing or planned infrastructure, but you are not required to develop the entire system.

Are designs limited to specific types of vehicles?

No, teams are encouraged to explore various types of vehicles, including electric VTOL, hybrid and combustion-fueled vehicles, as well as airships and UAVs. The focus should be on vehicles suitable for campus interconnectivity and efficient intercampus travel.

Can the proposed designs include conceptual vehicles of our own design?

Yes, teams may include conceptual vehicle designs as part of their proposals. However, the primary focus should be on practical, feasible systems that can integrate with existing or planned vehicles in the industry.

Do renderings count towards the proposal page limit?

No, additional pages can be used for renderings as long as the body of the proposal does not exceed the specified page limits. Additional pages for renderings may include brief descriptions of the renderings, but these pages should not be used to include additional proposal narrative material.

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 faculty/postdoctoral mentor approval forms), the following process is recommended:

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 your platform.
Follow the platform’s sharing instructions to generate a shareable link.
Double-check that the permissions are set to “Viewer” before pasting the link into the Google Form submission.

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

Here are some helpful resources from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA to understand current and planned regulations:

We want to include beta designs of our application in the report. Would that count towards the three-page limit?

Assuming the beta designs you want to include will be graphic elements such as screenshots or renderings, you may include them in additional pages that will not count towards the page limit. These additional pages may include brief descriptions of the graphics, but should not be used to include additional proposal narrative material.

How many additional pages for figures are allowed?

There is no set limit to the number of additional pages for figures. While these additional pages can include brief descriptions of the figures, additional pages must not contain any narrative material beyond explaining the graphics.

Does the title page count toward the overall page limit?

A title page will not count towards the page limit as long as it does not include any additional proposal narrative material.

For the GNC portion of the proposal, should our focus be primarily on guidance, or should we address navigation and control as well?

While we encourage addressing all aspects, Phase 1 proposals may focus primarily on guidance and navigation methods. Proposals should prioritize areas with flexibility for customization or optimization, with detailed work on low-level control explored further in Phase 2.

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.

How high- or low-level should we aim to go in terms of GNC and terrain mapping?

Aim for a level of detail sufficient to demonstrate feasibility and integration with campus environments. Your approach should balance technical specifics with practical implementation.

Should we prioritize developing scheduling or optimization algorithms, or should we focus more on creating a simulation?

The competition pertains to creating simulation software on which your algorithms can be tested.

Are we presuming the vehicles are to be piloted or completely autonomous, regarding flight planning, flight deviations, weather corrections, airspace permissions and ATC clearance, altitude changes, traffic avoidance and monitoring, and power management?

Proposals can assume either piloted or autonomous vehicles, but you should clarify your assumption. Autonomous systems are encouraged for future scalability, but at the same time, it should be recognized that airspace is heterogeneous.

Is it necessary to mention specific libraries or the tech stack that we plan to use?

Phase 1 proposals should include a high-level overview of your technical approach, so details such as specific libraries or tech stacks are not mandatory.

Do we have to account for item deliveries or coordination with ground transportation in some way?

One of the design objectives is the seamless integration with existing ground transportation systems. Designs should focus primarily on the transportation of people, but we strongly encourage teams to address the potential for incorporating the delivery of goods.

Design the Future of UC Air Mobility:Air Operations System Development