Precision agriculture makes its way into Embry Riddle’s UAS competition  

Photo Courtesy of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

By Ashley Addington



Yesterday Embry Riddle announced this year’s 2014 Real World Design Challenge Scenario. 



The goal of the competition is for students to apply UAS skills and knowledge to provide the best outcome in increasing food production for the world through precision agriculture. The high school students competing have the opportunity to win a $50,000 scholarship to attend any of Embry Riddle’s three campuses.  Teachers will have the chance to win a $1 million in professional engineering software.  



“Embry-Riddle Worldwide is honored to be involved with the Real World Design Challenge on several levels this year. Our faculty has done an excellent job in developing a scenario that will promote critical thinking and problem solving in an interactive and experiential setting,” said Embry-Riddle Worldwide Chancellor John R. Watret in a press release.  



Teams will be judged at the state level and then will progress to nationals. The finals for the competition will be in November 2014 and there is no fee for participating in the competition.  



“The Embry-Riddle design team has helped to take the challenge to a whole new level. This will allow us to raise the academic quality of the experience for the teachers and students. Consequently, we will be more effective in building the STEM workforce,” said Ralph Coppola, president and founder of the Real World Design Challenge. 



Since starting in 2008, the Real World Design Challenge has had more than 12,000 student participants across the nation and has encouraged students to further pursue careers involving mathematics, engineering and science.