AMA UMASC Georgia Tech wins first-ever Collegiate Drone National Championship

Georgia Tech won the first-ever Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship hosted by Purdue University on Saturday, scoring more than $15,000 worth of equipment and prizes. The gusty winds and winding track were no match for the 48 pilots and their homemade drones. The races went off without a hitch, despite challenging 19-20 MPH winds. Student-made drones compete during one of the qualification rounds of the first Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship that was held at Purdue University on Saturday (April 15). The pilots used the homemade creations to navigate a complicated obstacle course at speeds that can reach 80-90 mph. 

Several AMA University Model Aviation Student Clubs (UMASC) competed in the event including Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and Purdue University. For more information about the AMA UMASC program, visit https://amaflightschool.org/programs/umasc. 

Georgia Tech beat out the other 26 universities to claim the top spot. The University of California, Berkeley finished second, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Unviersity-Daytona third and Purdue finished fourth.”It was a fantastic event,” Tyler Landers, president of the Purdue Drone Club said. “It was a bit windy, but I think everyone had a good time. It was great for Purdue to host the first ever. Congratulations to Georgia Tech they had a great day today.” The final race consisted of Corey Ibanez from the University of California Santa Cruz, David Dominguez Hooper from UC Berkeley, Nick Willard of Georgia Tech and Ivan Rodriguez of the University of Texas-Arlington. Rodriguez beat out Ibanez for the top spot in the race, followed by Willard in third.

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3 comments

  1. So, … Did the FCC change the regulations to allow financial gain under the auspices of Amateur Radio Licenses?? Not! Or did the Drone Racers just ignore the required licensing and its restrictions all together? Probably! Maybe they all used the one FCC accepted video transmitter? But even it does not meet all the Amateur operating requirements (e.g Station ID, no one-way transmissions, need to monitor the channel before transmitting to preclude causing interference, etc.)

    Maybe this article should be sent over to the FCC to see what they think about this whole FPV use of RF spectrum and financial gain, let alone one-way transmissions w/o callsign IDs. Maybe it is past time to settle all these variances from the Amateur regulations. Or are we going to depend on the “Hear no evil, see no evil” routine?

    Do not get me wrong. I use FPV. I just think we need to recognize that most current FPV video transmissions fall outside the Amateur regulations and get the Proposed Rule Making changes initiated. Of course this assumes that the FPVer even has an Amateur Radio License! AMA and the manufacturers should be the ones to initiate the appropriate rule changes as a joint effort! Only they can figure out where the rules need to be five years from now!

    Also, we need to get our FPV folks properly licensed. Otherwise some group or individual may just find a Notice of Forfeiture in the mailbox. These typically start out with fines in the thousands of $s and occasionally can go above $10K. And, … once the action is complete they typically ban the Perp. from using any RF devices, confiscate all the Perp’s RF transmitters, etc. We need to get ahead of this. It is past time to recognize and properly resolve the issue! Time for the AMA to be proactive!

    1. Thank you for your comments. AMA remains steadfast that our members are to comply with FCC regulations when operating FPV. This is stated throughout AMA’s safety programming including https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/550.pdf, https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/FPVFCC.pdf, and https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/590.pdf. We communicate this guidance through multiple channels such as this blog, our partnerships with MultiGP, social media, and our magazine Model Aviation including the following article which prominently discusses FCC licensing https://modelaviation.com/FPVforBeginners. Our members who are conducting FPV, even in a competitive event, are still operating as amateur hobbyists. As this segment of the hobby grows, we are continuing our conversations with the FCC and FAA to better define the difference between a hobbyist competitive event verse a commercial competitive event to ensure our members are complying with federal requirements.”

  2. I read about it. It sounds great too. I took part in drone racing from last 1 year. It’s awesome game. Everyone enjoy this game. There are so many companies who arrange drone racing game. Now a days, drone racing trend is growing and so many competition arranged every year.

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