Santiago Morales and Rhodes Engineering Team Win First Place at International Aerospace Challenge

Excellence in Applied Engineering and Aerospace Design

An interdisciplinary student team from Rhodes University, captained by senior undergraduate Santiago Morales, has claimed first prize at the prestigious International Aerospace and Remote Robotics Championship. Competing against dozens of institutions worldwide, the team presented an autonomous solar-assisted drone engineered for high-altitude meteorological data collection.

The project was designed, fabricated, and flight-tested entirely within the student workshops and wind-tunnel facilities at Rhodes University in Makhanda.

Engineering Specifications & Innovations

• Composite Airframe: Ultra-lightweight carbon fiber structure with integrated solar harvesting skin.
• Autonomous Navigation: Real-time atmospheric current mapping allowing autonomous thermal soaring to extend flight endurance beyond twenty-four hours.
• Sensor Payload: Modular atmospheric monitoring equipment calibrated to measure particulate concentrations and greenhouse gas gradients.

Team Perspectives

"This victory reflects months of late nights in the fabrication lab and relentless iterative testing," said Santiago Morales. "The technical grounding and hands-on laboratory access provided by our department made it possible to tackle complex aerospace challenges as undergraduates."