ISLAMABAD: The United States Embassy in Islamabad has lauded Pakistani students for “beating MIT & Stanford” university in an aircraft designing, building and flying contest.
The Pakistani team, comprising of students from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), won against the renowned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University.
“Congrats to Team Invictus, a group of Pakistani students from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute for winning 2nd place in the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Design, Build and Fly) competition, beating MIT & Stanford!” the Embassy wrote on Twitter.
The Pakistani students were part of the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) competition where they had to design, build, and fly an aircraft.
Congrats to Team Invictus, a group of Pakistani students from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute for winning 2nd place in the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Design, Build and Fly) competition, beating MIT & Stanford!
Photo credit: Team Invictus pic.twitter.com/xV8SkPiwoM
— U.S. Embassy Islamabad (@usembislamabad) February 17, 2021
The contest team happened in December last year as the team from GIKI was secured the second position among 115 teams. The university said it has been the sole representative from Pakistan in the) competition for the past 10 consecutive years.
AIAA DBF is an international Remote Controlled(R/C) aircraft competition sponsored and organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cessna Aircraft Company, and Raytheon Missile Systems.
Every year, hundreds of engineering institutes send in their proposals, out of which this year only 115 proposals were accepted. Teams from all five continents take part, including many world-renowned engineering institutes, such as MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.
Each team is then required to design and manufacture an electric-powered aerial vehicle. A 60-page technical report is submitted by each team followed by the fly-offs that take place alternately in Kansas and Arizona, USA.
This year the coronavirus situation meant that the team faced the additional challenge of working remotely, and so digital collaboration tools were used for the first time.
After achieving their best position in the competition last year, the team broke all expectations and secured a second position across the world and first in Asia in the proposal phase. The team said they are looking forward to bring further good news to the aviation industry of Pakistan and use their international experience to help promote this hobby in the country.
