UTDesign Team Takes First in Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle Competition

A UTDesign^® Capstone team from The University of Texas at Dallas comprised of electrical and computer engineering and computer science students placed first in the spring 2024 Raytheon Technologies, Inc.’s Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (AUV) competition held in North Texas. This is the second time the team has won the annual event — a UT Dallas team also placed first in 2022.

Liam Hubbard, an electrical and computer engineering student from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, was recently featured on CBS News for his team’s participation.

“This event is an autonomous vehicle competition, so the idea is that each team’s vehicle shoots the other team’s vehicle with water,” Hubbard said.

AUVs, also known as drones, are known for their defense applications, but they are now utilized for a broad range of purposes, from delivering emergency medical supplies to distributing consumer goods. Raytheon invited around 100 students from 10 universities in three states to design and develop a drone that delivered a payload of water to a specific target.

UT Dallas’ teams were led by Dr. Miguel Razo-Razo and Dr. Marco Tacca, professors of instruction and UTDesign Capstone faculty directors in computer science and electrical and computer engineering, respectively

“A few years ago, this was a single UTDesign Capstone project,” Tacca said. However, over time, several universities were invited to participate and the competition expanded. Initially, the challenge involved a single AUV but recently, teams have been required to operate two AUVs including a ground vehicle. The evolving competition rules have made the event increasingly challenging each year. It’s exciting to envision further growth, with the potential for additional challenges, more types of vehicles and, of course, participation from even
more teams.

Competitors were tasked with building a drone that could deliver a payload of water to each of the competition’s robots, which were also following paths given in tasks. Each robot had sensors located on its top so that each hit was recorded. Each drone needed to hit the targets, then safely return to the landing zone to complete the objective.

“This project is a hands-on experience that encourages students to enhance their teamwork and collaboration skills by working with peers from different majors,” Razo said. “The entire team must engage with industry mentors, adhering to their established processes and standards. Additionally, the competitive nature of having multiple teams provides an opportunity for innovation and thinking outside the box while enhancing their professional networking skills.”

Competitions for senior students are an important way for them to communicate what they have learned and to meet with peers at the same time said faculty directors. UTDesign students have placed first in 10 national competitions through the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the biannual Capstone Design Conference student competition.

Other electrical and computer engineering participants include Adam Szumski BS’24, Arya Ahmed Hussein, Gabrielle Nguyen BS’24, Ibraheem Al-khawam BS’24, Patrick Lu BS’24 and Rehman Mushtaq. Szumski, Nguyen, Al-khawam and Mushtaq are now pursuing master’s degrees in electrical engineering at UT Dallas. Computer science students include Shashank Appala BS’24, Mark Olson BS’24, Meghansh Poreddy BS’24 and Isaac Vargas Garcia.