Niagara College captures second place at UAV Competition

Niagara College soared into second place at the Canada Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Design/Build and Fly Competition, hosted by CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick recently.

Team Ragnarok, composed of Niagara College Photonics Research Assistants Jeff Brown and Mike Taras, took home second place overall in the competition, and placed first in Phase 1. Winners were honoured during an Awards Banquet May 10. Brown and

Taras have just completed their fourth year in the College’s Bachelor of Applied Technology Degree program.

The purpose of the competition is to build Canadian interest, expertise and experience in unmanned technologies at the university and college levels. The theme of this year’s competition was Forest Fire Fighting.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) needed to provide information about the fire to the on-scene fire commander and spot dangers that would affect firefighters.

The competition consisted of two phases. Phase 1 was the Technical Competition and involved a written proposal submitted by each team describing details of the vehicle design. Phase 2 was the Airborne Competition, in which teams used their designed UAVs to complete tasks.

A team needs to complete Phase 1 to be eligible for Phase 2.

Brown and Taras have been involved in an Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) funded Interact project, "The Development of a Remote Gas Sensing (S02) 2D CCD Camera." The project involves industry partner Resonance Ltd. and faculty lead Alexander McGlashan.

This is the first time Niagara College has competed in the competition.