Engineering students take top honors

A team of engineering students secured first place for the second year in a row at the UAV Competition.

The FLCC team won first place for the second consecutive year in the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Competition, sponsored by the New York State Two-Year Engineering Science Association.

The event took place on April 28 at Monroe Community College with seven teams from five community colleges; the others were Broome, Hudson Valley, and Jefferson CC.

The competition involved two vehicles, a self-driving UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), and a remotely piloted UAV. The objective was to autonomously transport the UAV through a series of ground navigation obstacles and release it at the designated zone.

The remotely piloted UAV had to maneuver around and through obstacles, change altitude to accomplish the flight mission, and land safely at the final destination. The project aimed to simulate a rescue mission where human navigation would be dangerous, and aerial navigation would be partially difficult.

Each team was evaluated based on their poster presentation and a series of mission demonstrations. FLCC’s team, named Bob ‘n’ Rob, was part of the Victor Campus Center based Engineering and Technology Club. Members are Bailey Phillips of Shortsville, Ksystof Seibak of Canandaigua, Eric Sandle of Bloomfield (the team captain and pilot), and Jacob DiGiovanni of Waterloo. They were coached by technical specialist Joshua Bell.

This year was FLCC’s sixth participation in this annual competition and their third win. Their poster presentation was judged to be the best among participating teams, and their mission demonstration was equally impressive.