A team of students from the Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Science (CS) departments of Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE) have qualified for the UAV Challenge Medical Express 2018 held in Australia. Team SBASSE is among the top 13 qualifying teams from across the world who participated in the competition. This is the first time that a team from Pakistan has qualified for this Competition, and is competing against notable teams from Australia, Poland, Thailand, Netherlands, Canada, India and China.
SBASSE students developed a fully autonomous UAV platform for blood sample retrieval from inaccessible remote areas. They developed this UAV system as part of their Senior Year Project. Designing this system involved expertise from Robotics, Computer Vision, Aero Modelling and Avionics. The team which consists of Bilal Ahmed (Team Lead), Mohbat Tharani, Ateeq Ur Rehman Baig, Ameer Hamza, Hafiz Ahmad Raza and Muhammad Abdul Basit is mentored by Dr. Muhammad Abubakr, Dr. Murtaza Taj and Dr. Wasif Tanveer Khan from the EE and CS departments.
The goal of the UAV Challenge is to demonstrate the utility of Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs) for civilian applications, particularly in those applications that will save the lives of people in the future. This is one of the most prestigious aerial robotics competitions sponsored by industry giants, like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing. Teams of students as well as industry professionals from all around the world participate in this competition.
The UAV by the SBASSE team has successfully cleared all three deliverables of this Competition securing a place for the next round from among a total of 55 teams that initially participated in this competition. This is the first time that a team from Pakistan qualified for this competition. The details of the results can be found here.
