CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

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CITRIS Aviation Prize

Realistic illustration of a near-future aircraft with rotors landing on a college campus.

Design the Future of UC Air Mobility:
Vertiport Design for Safe and Efficient Connectivity

The 2025–26 CITRIS Aviation Prize aims 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 is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the UC campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz.

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 continued an exciting multiyear journey to advance campus air mobility by tasking 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.

This year, the 2025–26 CITRIS Aviation Prize builds on these efforts by focusing on the operational framework for an advanced intercampus air transportation system — the California Airlink — that will connect the four CITRIS campuses and Moffett Field via electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

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.

Subsequent CITRIS Aviation Prize competitions will further develop these AAM plans, with future challenges delving into campus infrastructure design and ultimately culminating in real-world testing and implementation. This phased approach ensures a comprehensive and sustainable advancement of air mobility technologies.

Objective

The goal of this year’s competition is to develop a scalable California Airlink operations concept consisting of a simulation framework that validates designs of vertiport location, layout and operations. The proposal should assess risky segments of the vertiport operation, such as takeoff and landing, with an emphasis on uncertain and unfavorable weather conditions and emergencies.

Specifically, the teams are asked to:

  • Design vertiport placement simulation tool for the entire Airlink along with low-altitude vehicle routes for takeoff and landing in normal and emergency situations, taking care to address potential system failure and extreme weather. Specify any sense-and-avoid and weather prediction capabilities required. Evaluate how proposed vertiport placement enables safe and efficient connectivity across key Northern California locations.
  • Create a roadmap for vertiport deployment and flight testing and assess economic scaling, linking simulation-based validation to real-world demonstration while analyzing costs of vertiport deployment and expansion of our intercampus Airlink.

The emphasis of the project is on developing simulation tools that enable safety, scalability and cost-effectiveness analyses, while providing a pathway toward real-world demonstration and implementation in the near future.

Competition Structure

There will be two phases in the competition.

Phase 1: Design Proposal (due Nov. 20)

  1. Interested teams from each campus, including teams with members from multiple campuses, submit proposals outlining their vision toward the competition’s objective. 
  2. 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)

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

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

Register your team or submit your proposal

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.
  • Additional pages may be used for title page, references, and figures or renderings as long as the body of the proposal does not exceed the specified page limits. Additional pages may include one-sentence descriptions of the renderings, but should not be used to include additional proposal narrative material.
  • You will be required to submit an approval form signed by your adviser, which you can download from the submission portal.

Phase 1 Proposals (Nov. 20, 2025)

Proposals should outline the team’s vision for a scalable Airlink operations concept, emphasizing simulation frameworks for vertiport placement, approach and takeoff route designs, weather-aware and emergency operations, and economic scalability.

Be sure to include the following elements:

  • Simulation software to validate vertiport location, layout and operations.
  • Vertiport placement strategy for the Airlink network, including integration with low-altitude vehicle routes for normal and emergency situations (e.g., system failures, extreme or uncertain weather). The strategy should enable Airlink service between the following locations across the proposed operational region:
  • Initial requirements for sense-and-avoid capabilities and weather-prediction systems to support safe takeoff, landing and en route operations.
  • Preliminary economic assessment of vertiport deployment and scaling across Northern California, including installation, maintenance and management costs; target revenue and usage; and upfront investment and amortization schedule.
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.

Phase 2 Proposals

Proposals selected for Phase 2 should include the following elements: 

  • Detailed description of required features outlined in Phase 1, refined and validated through initial simulation results.
    • Comprehensive details on the simulation framework, including architecture, functionality and integration with vertiport placement and routing strategies.
    • In-depth description of operational safety systems, including technical specifications for sense-and-avoid, weather prediction and emergency rerouting protocols.
  • Roadmap for staged flight testing and economic scaling, including:
    • Identification of key stakeholders, regulatory considerations, environmental impacts, funding strategies and phased timelines.
    • Estimated costs and implementation timelines for vertiport deployment and Airlink expansion.
    • Strategies for incorporating feedback from potential users (e.g., routes, schedules), operators and stakeholders to refine and optimize the proposed systems.

Evaluation Criteria

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

  • Simulation software design: Clarity of the test bed concept, ability to model vertiport and flight operations, and potential to expand in Phase 2
  • Vertiport placement and routing: Strength of siting strategy across key destinations, integration of normal and emergency flight paths, and consideration of terrain, airspace and community impacts
  • Safety and emergency systems: Quality of sense-and-avoid and weather prediction requirements in Phase 1, and depth of technical protocols for emergencies in Phase 2
  • Scalability and roadmap: Feasibility of expanding from initial designs to the full California Airlink network, with clear phased deployment and resilience planning
  • Sustainability and environmental integration: Awareness of weather, noise, wildlife and other environmental factors and strategies to minimize negative impacts
  • Innovation and vision: Originality of approach in test bed design, safety systems and integration with UC-specific challenges
  • Economic feasibility (for Phase 2 only): Realism and cost-effectiveness of vertiport deployment and expansion, including funding strategies and stakeholder considerations

Timeline

  • Sept. 22, 2025: Team registration opens
  • October: Information session (check back for date and RSVP link)
  • Nov. 20: Phase 1 proposals due at 11:59 p.m. PT 
  • Mid-December: Phase 1 winners announced
  • January–May 2026: Monthly progress presentations to CITRIS Aviation for Phase 1 finalists
  • Mid-March: Midpoint progress presentations
  • April 17: Phase 2 reports due 
  • Late April/early May: Final presentations, judging and awards ceremony (date to be announced)

Prizes

At the end of the competition, the following prize will be awarded to a participating team:

  • CITRIS Aviation Excellence Award ($1,500)

More prizes will be announced as they are confirmed. 

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?

No, teams should focus on designing a simulation framework and operational concept for the California Airlink network, not building infrastructure. Designs should be compatible with existing or planned infrastructure to maximize potential for future real-world integration.

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:

  1. Upload your documents as a PDF to a file-sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.
  2. Ensure the link is set to “Anyone with the link can view” or the equivalent in your platform.
  3. Follow the platform’s sharing instructions to generate a shareable link.
  4. 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.

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.

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.