URI take top prize at national FAA competition

FOUR URI engineering students won first place in the University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, for inventing a drone detection system. From left to right, Alan Andrade, vice president of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, and students Stephen Pratt, Catherine LiVolsi, Krista Brouwer and Thomas Cottam. LiVolsi is holding a drone, and Brouwer is holding the drone detection system that they invented.
FOUR URI engineering students won first place in the University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, for inventing a drone detection system. From left to right, Alan Andrade, vice president of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, and students Stephen Pratt, Catherine LiVolsi, Krista Brouwer and Thomas Cottam. LiVolsi is holding a drone, and Brouwer is holding the drone detection system that they invented.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – For the second consecutive year, engineering students from the University of Rhode Island won first place in the University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs.
The competition is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a news release, and the students won for designing a drone detection system.
To address the problem of unmanned drones colliding with aircraft in no-fly zones around airports, the four students invented a solar-powered drone detection and tracking system that alerts airport officials about approaching drones and warns drone operators when their vehicles enter a no-fly zone using radio frequency identification tags.
Members of the winning team, all of whom earned degrees in mechanical engineering in May, are Krista Brouwer of Middletown, Thomas Cottam of Scituate, Catherine LiVolsi of Peace Dale, and Stephen Pratt of Coventry. They invented the system as part of their senior capstone design course taught by Professor Bahram Nassersharif, which requires students to solve a real-world problem with a viable product.

“Because this is such a very new issue, there really aren’t any other ways that have yet been developed to address this growing problem,” said LiVolsi, who recently started a job at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. “So at the moment our project is one of the only methods to assist the FAA.”

Added Pratt, “Our system provides a means for increased situational awareness for air traffic controllers and pilots to better understand when and where drones may be flying during the most critical parts of flight – takeoff and landing.” Pratt is working toward a career designing rides at Disney theme parks around the world.

The team will travel to Washington, D.C., on July 17 to present its invention – coined “Eye in the Sky” – to FAA officials. Team members will receive a $2,500 award for placing first in the competition.

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Cottam said his career objective is to work in the aerospace industry.
“I chose this project because it dealt directly with the FAA and meant that I could work with airport officials and solve the problems they’re having,” he said.
Last year’s winners from URI invented a collision avoidance system for planes on the ground at airports. The 5-pound device temporarily attaches to the wingtip with suction cups and monitors the tarmac area using ultrasonic sensors. When the plane approaches a nearby object, the system emits lights and sounds to warn of a potential collision.

Students from URI have placed second and third in the competition in the previous four years.

Other inventions from recent capstone projects have streamlined the manufacturing process at Toray Plastics in North Kingstown, improved toys made by Rhode Island-based Hasbro and helped other Ocean State companies.
“Many of my capstone projects result in an invention or a solution that will result in a new product or process,” Nassersharif said. “I selected the FAA design competition for my capstone course and students because it focuses on current and challenging problems faced by our national aviation system and airports. This project is the top choice for some of my best students. I am very proud of these students.”

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