The ORION UAV Design Challenge was a 48-hour, design-only UAV hackathon organised by the Pegasus UAV Club (P.E.G.A.S.U.S.), IIST, in collaboration with S.K.E.T.C.H. and CCGP IIST, under the guidance of Prof. Rajesh Joseph Abraham. Fifteen crews of four students each, 57 registered participants in all, competed in a Senior Track and a First-Year Special Track. Every crew was assigned a distinct real-world problem statement, such as disaster-relief delivery, medical cold-chain delivery, power-line inspection, anti-drone interception and propulsion fault detection, and produced a CAD model, a design report, simulation evidence and a final presentation, without building any hardware. The crews presented their designs to a panel of judges, and submissions and scoring were handled on a purpose-built web portal using a common 100-mark rubric. Team Varuna secured first position and Team AeroDrift second position in the Senior Track, and Team BASH received the mention in the First-Year Special Track.

Faculty In Charge:

Dr Rajesh Joseph Abraham