Pakistan is blessed with highly talented young individuals. When given an opportunity, these youngsters achieve astonishing success even at global levels. We have good news again! Pakistani students beat MIT and Stanford in aeronautics and astronautics.
A team of Pakistani students, from the popular Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), have won the competition against their peers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University.
The United States Embassy in Islamabad also lauded the students for “beating MIT & Stanford” in an aircraft designing, building, and flying contest.
Pakistani Team Invictus from GIKI has bagged the 2nd position in Design, Build and Fly competition, they beat MIT and Stanford, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics hosted it.
The competition had participation from students from all across the globe. Including renowned institutions such as MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.
GIKI students clinched the second spot to beat many of these institutions and bring the prize home. The 2021 iteration of the competition aimed to build and test a UAV with a towed sensor. All student teams were tasked to design, fabricate and demonstrate the capabilities of their unmanned radio-controlled aircraft. They design it to meet a specific mission objective.
First best in Asia!
As per the statement released by the GIK University, the team used advanced manufacturing techniques. It included 3D printed parts and a pod and boom aircraft configuration to get their design ready.
The team’s proposal for the unmanned aircraft scored 85.9. It was first best in Asia whereas it rated the second-best globally. The proposal document consisted of 60 pages of highly technical information plus fly-offs. It took place alternately in Kansas and Arizona, USA.
Moreover, it is pertinent to mention that due to COVID-19 for the first time, digital collaboration tools had to be used. However, that did not hinder the team’s progress at all as they set forth to secure the second position.
Now, the team’s future plans are to be the face of the radio-controlled aircraft industry in Pakistan. In addition to this, they aim to promote aeronautics and aviation as a hobby in the country. So that more people get involved.
Last year, a final year student of GIKI, Muhammad Aleem, claimed to have come up with a plan of detecting COVID-19 with 96% accuracy. Aleem explained that it is possible through Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Recently, Zara Naeem Dar, a student who hails from Lahore, topped the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) exams. More so, she became the worldwide prizewinner. She scored the highest marks in the Financial Reporting exam conducted in December 2020.
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