A team of students led by faculty advisor Dr. John Sullivan, professor of aerodynamics in Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was awarded Best Overall in the inaugural ASME Innovative Additive Manufacturing 3D (IAM3D) Challenge on November 15, 2014.

Team members included students from Purdue University and Brigham Young University. Eli Cohen (Purdue, Team Leader), Jean Ruggiero (Purdue), and Aaron Inouye (BYU) submitted their entry based on their design and manufacture of the world’s largest 3D printed UAV accomplished during the 2013-2014 Aerospace Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (AerosPACE) course.

The goal of the competition, open to undergraduates around the world, was to "re-engineer existing products or create new designs that minimize energy consumption and/or improve energy efficiency. Students will showcase their creativity by demonstrating the value added through their ingenuity, application of sound engineering design principles, and leveraging Additive Manufacturing technology to address a broad spectrum of industrial, manufacturing, and humanitarian challenges." 

The application consisted of a business case that was submitted in June where the AerosPACE team described the promise of using additive manufacturing to bring specialized UAV solutions to market far more quickly than traditional manufacturing techniques could hope to do. In September, winners were notified that they had made the final cut of 30 proposals. ASME, at no cost to the team, printed a scale model of the UAV (which was submitted along with the business case) and provided funding for the students to travel to Montreal and present to a panel of judges. 

The judges’ decisions were based on the following breakdown of criteria:

Business case (Context and Relevance) 20%
Innovation and Creativity 30%
Efficiency and Feasibility 30%
Communication and Presentation 20%

See the largest 3D Printed UAV first flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhjf-HuC13g

To learn more about the ASME IAM3D Challenge, visit: https://www.asme.org/events/competitions/iam3d-challenge