Mumbai’s Saboo Siddik College of Engineering comes 2nd in global UAV-design contest

A team from the MH Saboo Siddik College of Engineering in Mumbai has bagged the second position globally and the first in Asia out of 75 teams worldwide in the Advanced Class design category of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aircraft, a senior official said today.

`Team Aerosols' of the Anjuman-I-Islam's MH Saboo Siddik College of Engineering at Byculla, Mumbai won the second prize in the Advanced Class, and third prize in the Micro Class in the annual international competition organised by Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE), Lockheed Martin (US) and Dassault Systems (France) in March this year.

These designs will now form part of the advanced research and development to be conducted by Lockheed Martin for future practical applications, said Zahir I Kazi, president, Anjuman-I-Islam, which runs the MH Saboo Siddik group of educational institutions.

The competition - in its 29th edition - was held last month at Lakeland, Florida, US. The 17-member `Team Aerosouls' included two females from the college. The competition also saw participation by elite teams from IITs Bombay, Vellore and Kanpur.

A total of 75 teams from all over the world participate every year for this prestigious event including from IIT Bombay,IIT Kanpur, VIT Vellore.

The college's principal, Mohiuddin Ahmed said the institution's `Team Aerosouls' has been the most aggressive competitor on the global arena for the prestigious SAE competition for three years.

"It was for the first time since the SAE competition's inception that an Indian team, `Team Aerosouls', won such a recognition in 2012-213, followed by 2013-2014, and the latest honours this year," IANS quoted Ahmed as saying.

Ahmed said, last year,` Team Aerosouls' stood first in the UAV Micro Class design at the world level and first in Asia in UAV Advanced Class design with a global rank of sixth.

The preceding year - 2012-2013 - `Team Aerosouls' stood first in Asia and 8th globally in the UAV Micro Class design, and became the first ever Indian participating team to win any honour in the SAE competition.

The SAE competition comprises UAV Regular, Micro and Advance Class as three sections in its Aero-Design Series.