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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Congratulations! Our 2024 Dream with Us challenge has concluded, and we are pleased to share the winning projects:
Middle School
1st Place: The Unstoppable Changemakers Team
(Anika J. and Aidan R.)
Fire Drones is a system of drones that battle wildfires. They use solar power for sustainability, machine learning technology for early detection of potential wildfires, and use biodegradable spheres called Fire Bombs to help extinguish wildfires. This system of firefighting drones actively communicates with emergency personnel to work until issues are marked “Resolved”.
2nd Place: Aerial Disaster Response Association Team
(Adhavan B., Sanat N., Ganesh P., Carl S.)
The Seismic Series is a drone system to assist with earthquake disasters. The Seismic Sentry, Lifeline, Atlas, and The Phoenix help to mitigate earthquake risks, save lives, and expedite recovery efforts. They detect problem areas, communicate with emergency personnel, civilians and other drones, deliver supplies, and one of them is large enough to carry up to 10 humans during an evacuation. Each drone has a different job, and they can also help in other disaster responses.
3rd Place: J.A.N.S. Team
(Jason P., Aditya B., Nathan V., Sai Niranjan S.)
A drone system that uses several drones with different jobs to help during storm-type disasters. They are housed in a crewed mothership that helps to power and deploy the drones. The system includes airlift drones, flying battery drones, vine-dropper drones, assistance drones, sensor drones, inflatable raft drones, and warning drones. Each one is key in helping to monitor, warn, help, and save humans from storm catastrophe.
High School
1st Place: PUSHPAK Team
(Devin W. and Isabel R.)
PushPak is a wildfire fighting drone. Thermal cameras detect hotspots and missing persons while the LiDAR camera maps the area, assesses the health of vegetation providing data for preventative and rebuilding efforts. It’s equipped with a holding tank that can be filled with extinguishing substances and fire retardant for prevention, planting seeds and a distributor for rebuilding after the wildfire. Solar-power recharges the drone when flying and the Dynamos (power-generating propellers) generate energy while flying. PushPak also has input/output capabilities to assist emergency personnel with powering needed devices. Variable wings allow this drone to be interchangeable, a comprehensive communication system lets it talk to humans and warn animals in the affected areas, plus a data collection system for early detection.
2nd Place: AirRescue Team
(Sarthak K. and Advaith S.)
The SkyWarden is a drone that helps to preserve innocent lives during earthquake disasters. It uses LiDAR to create a digital map used to find safe routes and find people. Equipped with a thermal sensor, it can locate life under the rubble and send information to emergency personnel. Its computer vision could recognize faces, bones, and blood to find human-life.
3rd Place: Flight Fusion Team
(Emily A. and Zahraa A.)
ResQGuard is an enhanced UAV that helps during severe weather such as thunderstorms, hurricanes and tornadoes and hydrological disasters such as floods, tsunamis, and drought. It has a swept wing design for 20% faster travel, weather radar system, sensors for hydro hazards, single-board computers, an essential medical kit, a camera with a 360 view, and fast processing software.
