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| The SkyHawks with the award at UPES |
After a 12-day trip to USA, including a grueling 3 days priming and preparing the aircraft as well as its own organizational skills, The SkyHawks picked up the coveted NASA Systems Engineering Award at the post-competition awards function. The criteria for awarding the NASA award included adherence to NASA's systems engineering philosophy that stresses on risk-free management of projects that both enhance results and prevent serious errors from affecting team workflow.
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| The team's silverware from NASA |
The 10-member student team, led by an experienced group of 5 final-year Aerospace Engineering students part of the team for last year, scaled a new set of achievements in March, 2012. The team's overall performance can be summarized through the following statistics:
International Ranking (Regular Class): 9
Ranking among teams from Asia: 1
Highest payload lifted: 20.3 lb
Success rate: 66.67%
The team displayed splendid examples of team work and meticulous planning, thus using it's 10-member workforce judiciously in getting the aircraft ready and fit-to-fly before most other teams. Innovations in goal decisions, strategic planning, environmental adaptation and "repair through modular replacement" were points noted by the competition judges. The NASA on-site representative Mr. George Price remarked, "This is the first time in all Aero Design competitions, East or West, that I have seen team planning that is goal and result oriented. The way you guys have forecasted your competition result and then worked backwards and set a realistic milestone-based target is amazing".
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| The team's plane: The SkyHawk-2 |
The NASA Systems Engineering Award has been sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Centre since 2006. The SkyHawks are entitled to a cash prize of $750 along with the iconic 'winged blades' trophy weighing nearly 3 lb. The team was supported by University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) and its faculty, corporate sponsor - Infotech Enterprises and a number of individuals who did their bit to make this success possible.
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