Youth of Pakistan is a force to be reckoned with. Forever striving to paint country's name in shades of success and glory on international stage, undergraduate student team known as NUST Airworks managed to represent Pakistan among 120 plus countries at an international drone competition at Turkey and aced show with a final standing in top 20.

NUST Airworks through support of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) participated in Teknofest 2022 with its highly innovative decentralised swarm of drones which are deployed for search and rescue missions. Drones are capable of collaboratively searching for markers placed on ground and delivering payloads to respective markers in a decentralised manner.

Competition was held at Kutahya, Turkey from August 9 to 14. Team set off for their memorable journey which was culmination of months of hard work. Team had opportunity of witnessing various Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) employed by Turkish Armed Forces as well as their scaled models. Moreover, team got a chance to meet Turkey's Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, who appreciated team's efforts in developing a truly unmanned aerial system. Final competition round took place on August 14 where team NUST AIRWORKS established a captivating green-and-white presence by achieving a top 20 finish.

Team NUST Airworks is an undergraduate student team based in NUST-PNEC which designs and manufactures fully autonomous drones. Team has been competing on a national and international stage since 2016. Since 2018, team has been representing Pakistan at UK's IMechE UAS Challenge, one of most prestigious international university-level drone competitions.

Team has won 9 awards in 3 years, including titles of Highest Placed New Entrant, 2018, Grand Champions, 2019, Runner Up, 2021. It was also a part of McDonald's campaign: McDonald's PK: Ingredients for Success. Primary focus of team's current project is to make it as economically feasible as possible and take Pakistan a step ahead in field of drone technology. Since June 2022, large-scale flooding in Pakistan has killed more than 1,500 people, including 416 children. It is one of deadliest floods in country's history.

European Space Agency has confirmed via satellite images that more than a third of Pakistan is currently submerged. Nust Airworks needs help to spread their message far and wide, as one team member discussed on a morning show on a private TV channel. Great initiatives are rooted in constant assistance, whether it's in terms of resources or moral support. Young aspirants of Nust Airworks believe they can have both, said a female student. Can government or any other organisation will come forward to watch and witness what youth have drawn in shape of drone.

This is only way to give helping hand to talents of country. Who will dare first, asks people who are well acquainted with project of NUST students and are in helms of such scientific and technological affairs. This has disastrous implications. 33 million people are in dire need of help, food, shelter and medicine. Current strategy for mass rescue and evacuation is underwhelming and inefficient, to say least. Majority of means available for help come in form of volunteers from NGOs, as well as personnel of Armed Forces putting their lives at risk to provide medicinal and other forms of aid to victims.

In an era where world has reached technological heights, use of helicopters is perhaps not most efficient, safe and economical route to address issue. In August 2022, six military officers were killed in a helicopter crash during a flood relief operation after experiencing poor weather conditions and losing contact with air traffic control. Question that comes to mind is, what could best possible solution be? Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones are solution to many of these problems. A drone is an uncrewed aircraft, a flying robot that can be remotely controlled or fly autonomously. There are four major domains in which drones are deployed in disaster management including mapping, search and rescue, Transportation and training. Floods are typical of a slow-onset disaster. In contrast, managing floods is a very complex and difficult task. It requires continuous monitoring of dykes and flooded and threatened areas. Drones can help decision-makers largely by reducing time required to locate victims and searching a large area in a short time period. Providing information about routes to rescuers for rescue operations searching for signs of life (life detection) and deploying for remote and hard-to-reach locations. 

Therefore, health and safety risks are cut to a minimum as they are operated from a safe location to perform reconnaissance. Country has witnessed widespread destruction and unspeakable tragedies, such as eye-watering incident of five friends who died waiting for a rescue mission as a helicopter could not manage to reach location. Situation, however, might have been resolved if application of drones had been chosen. Looking on positive side, however, there is potential for Pakistan to grow in sector of drones and drone applications.

NUST Airworks an undergraduate student team from PNEC NUST, is best example to showcase extraordinary kind of potential our engineers have.  Team designs and manufactures drones and participates in international competitions, this year they stood among top 20 participants out of a massive 93 teams at Teknofest UAV competition held in Turkey. Team designed very practical mission for their UAVs this year.

A swarm of drones capable of carrying out a search and rescue operation over a sufficiently large area while delivering unique payloads to designated ground markers. Sequence of mission to be performed by UAV is-

1) Area Search: Drones perform a coordinated search for ground markers along separate algorithmically defined routes.

2) Marker Identification: Drones detect and classify ground markers along their path, storing relevant information on onboard Single Board Computers (SBCs).

3) Payload Delivery: Each drone navigates towards its associated ground marker for payload delivery using information acquired from other drones. Though team's drones were customised only for competition purposes, their design holds potential real-world applications.

Ample support for these projects could result in a variety of meaningful advances for nation. Nust Airworks needs your help to spread their message far and wide, as one team member discussed on a morning show on tvone. Great initiatives are rooted in constant assistance, whether it's in terms of resources or moral support. The young aspirants of Nust Airworks believe they can have both.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 17 2022

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.