Team DROPS has earned first place in the 2023 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech International Student Conference for their senior design project.

DROPS, which stands for Drone Recharging Operational Payload System, received top honors in the student team category at SciTech. The team developed an autonomous cargo delivery system for uncrewed aerial vehicles that is capable of dropping off and picking up drone cargo without the need for human intervention.

“It’s very exciting and shows that all the work that the team put in paid off,” said Cody Watson, the team’s project manager. “The work wasn’t in vain. People at SciTech were amazed at what we did. It was exciting feeling that sense of validation!”

The student paper competition consisted of two major components: one written and one presented. The authors of the submitted paper included Nate Kuczun (Systems Engineer), Caroline Dixon (Test Engineer), and Watson.

The additional members of the 12-person team included Mia Abouhamad, Sid Arora, Ben Capeloto, Ian Chakraborty, Dominic Dougherty, Rafael Figueroa, Daniel GutierrezMendoza, Alex Karas, and Joshua Schmitz.

 “This design is something that hasn’t been done before,” Watson said. “There are UAV delivery services, but we wanted to pull the human out of the loop. There are no instances of a UAV reliably capturing cargo. We were hoping to set that standard and be the first to do it.”

The team also won first place at the AIAA Region V student competition earlier in 2022, earning them a slot at the SciTech International Conference.

Watson was chosen by the team to represent them at the Region V competition and SciTech. At the International Conference, he gave a 20-minute presentation and answered questions from a panel of three judges. DROPS was competing against five teams that had won other AIAA regional competitions from locations all around the world.

The project was sponsored by a startup founded by Hank Scott, a lecturer in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. Scott is now pursuing venture capital funding to further the design with the goal of eventual commercialization.

“Hank pushed us to the very limit, and I think we produced a phenomenal result,” Watson said. “I’m so thankful to Hank for his vision, Dr. Jade Morton for her drive to push us above and beyond, AIAA for the opportunity, and the rest of the team for making all this possible.”

This is the second time a CU Boulder student team has won the national SciTech student team award. In 2017, Team ELSA earned first place for their proof-of-concept Europa lander project.

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A new article on reasons to be optimistic in 2023 features airline seat technology with ties to the University of Colorado Boulder.

Hank Scott is a lecturer in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and the CEO of Molon Labe Seating.

His company aims to improve a major bane for airline passengers everywhere: the middle seat. They have developed a patented-staggered layout that offers increased width, a wider middle seat and staggered armrests.

The Washington Post spotlights it in a feature article that begins by noting that "the 2020s haven’t offered a surplus of cheer so far", and goes on to discuss seven different things that "might actually improve in 2023."

Scott says the seat would be a plus to travelers who generally avoid the middle seat at all costs.

“You wouldn’t be angry and in a bad mood,” he said. “You’d get off the plane happy.”

The section on Scott's company is the final item at the bottom of the article.

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Hank Scott, a lecturer in Smead Aerospace, and Kevin VanLiere (MechEngr BS'95) are working to improve the design of the middle seat on airplanes. They've received major media attention for their startup, Molon Labe Seating, which has just received FAA Certification of a new seat design to increase passenger space by utilizing a patented staggered payout.

The seats are being manufactured by Primus Aerospace in Colorado and will be available on two airlines by April or May of 2020.

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Hank Scott has designed a new airplane row to make you want the middle seat. The University of Colorado Boulder aerospace instructor is founder of Molon Labe Designs, a startup getting media attention around the world for a movable seat row that could make boarding flights a much less painful experience.

It's called the Side-Slip Seat. The middle seat is slightly lower and behind the aisle and window seats. The design means the aisle seat can slide on top of the middle seat during boarding to double the width of the aisle. It means you would no longer be held up behind slow moving passengers with bulky luggage they struggle to fit in the overhead compartment.

It's not just a benefit for passengers; it also means planes could be boarded faster and get off the ground sooner, saving time and money for airlines.

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