{"590622":{"#nid":"590622","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Wins First-Ever Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThree engineering students took home the top trophy at the Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship held at Purdue University on April 15th. It is the first year a national championship has been organized for pilots of unmanned aircraft to compete against each other at the college level.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETwenty-seven universities fielded teams of pilots who navigated obstacle courses flying custom-designed drones. The course was designed for testing both a pilot\u0026rsquo;s speed and precision.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech was led by aerospace engineering major Nick Willard, who flew in the final race to seal the victory. Willard competes in many non-collegiate Drone Racing League events, and has won racing events televised on ESPN. He is affectionately known by drone racing enthusiasts as \u0026ldquo;Wild Willy.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWillard was joined by Seth Ableidinger and Davis Engelman, two mechanical engineering majors, who held strong in preliminary races to put Georgia Tech into a solid lead.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir times and rankings, combined with Willard\u0026rsquo;s, put Georgia Tech into first place among the field.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe University of California, Berkeley finished second, with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in third, and host Purdue University coming in fourth.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Tech team brought home a total of $15,000 in equipment and prizes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qm3EA-OMrTo\u0026amp;feature=youtu.be#t=6h55m0s\u0022\u003ESee footage from the first collegiate drone racing championship.\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cem\u003E(Note, the final race begins at 6:53:53. The awards presentation can be seen at 7:27:37) \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Three engineering students take home top honors for their flying skills "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA talented trio of Georgia Tech students will go down in history as the first team to win the Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Three Georgia Tech students won first place at the first Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship."}],"uid":"28058","created_gmt":"2017-04-19 15:32:26","changed_gmt":"2017-04-19 19:23:39","author":"Steven Norris","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-04-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2017-04-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"590623":{"id":"590623","type":"image","title":"Georgia Tech Wins First-Ever Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship","body":null,"created":"1492616095","gmt_created":"2017-04-19 15:34:55","changed":"1492616095","gmt_changed":"2017-04-19 15:34:55","alt":"Georgia Tech Wins First-Ever Drone Racing Collegiate National Championship","file":{"fid":"225018","name":"Screen Shot 2017-04-19 at 10.09.52 AM.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-04-19%20at%2010.09.52%20AM.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-04-19%20at%2010.09.52%20AM.png","mime":"image\/png","size":668621,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-04-19%20at%2010.09.52%20AM.png?itok=1ZT-sTVf"}}},"media_ids":["590623"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESteven Norris\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Social Media\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E404-385-0591\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["snorris@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}