As the year comes to a close, 27 fourth-year engineering students are nearing the end of their work on the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle project, one of the six projects available to engineering students in their final year at Carleton.
The goal for this year’s group of students, under the leadership of Paul Straznicky and Jeremy Laliberté of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was to get the aircraft ready for flight — a goal that
Straznicky said the group will meet later this month.
The project is to create a vehicle that will be programmed to fly on its own and find deposits of minerals for
geophysical surveyors.
When it is finished, it will be handed over to Sander Geophysics Ltd., the company that is partnering and helping to support the creation of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
The project has included students from aerospace, mechanical, electrical and systems engineering programs at Carleton.
The engineers were broken up into several groups covering different aspects of the project and are working in conjunction to complete the assembly of the vehicle and get it flying before next year’s students take over the project.
This is the fourth year of the five-year project and the students have been working on the project despite a heavy workload from other areas of their programs
“It’s a labour of love,” said Stefan Radacina Rusu of the avionics team.
The students admitted that it can be stressful working as separate groups, but at the end of the day, they are all working towards the same goal and help each other keep on task.
“It’s easy to work when you have such competent people,” Radacina Rusu said.
The group flaunted the project March 13 in front of 40 industry members. Each group member gave a presentation about his or her part in the project and its progress.
Straznicky said that was the chance for students to get feedback about the project from experienced members of the industry. It is also an opportunity for companies to seek interest in Carleton students as future employees.
When it came to the accomplishments of the team, the students were very modest.
“There’s credit to be had through five years of work,” said Brittany LeBlanc of the structures team about previous teams’ work on the project.
However, when it came to Carleton as a whole, the students and professors agreed that the project was an achievement for Carleton.
The make-up of the vehicle itself is on the leading edge of technology, the students admitted. The composite used to create its body is very light compared to traditionally used metals, and is a breakthrough technology.
“The project is very important to the esteem at Carleton,” said André Couture of the integration team. He said it is a project that prospective students and people outside of Carleton can respect.