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Drone Squads from The Cane Institute Sweep National Competition

Four teams from The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies (TCI) at A.D. Henderson University School recently competed at the Drones in School National Competition in Denver for the first time, taking first through fourth place among middle school squads.


By jonathan fraysure | 5/30/2023

Four teams from The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies (TCI) at A.D. Henderson University School recently competed at the Drones in School National Competition in Denver for the first time, taking first through fourth place among middle school squads.

鈥淪ix Degree Drone Racing鈥 took top honors, followed by 鈥淟ift-OFF,鈥 鈥淧.I.C.鈥 and 鈥淔astSpeeds,鈥 respectively, topping the invited field of 12 national middle school teams that also participated.

While nine TCI teams qualified for nationals, only the top four made the trip. Immediate success at the highest level of competition is a byproduct of considerable student interest in this brand-new program, said Allan Phipps, director of TCI and coordinator of ADHUS K-12 District STEM.

鈥淲e offered an aerospace class for the first time for our middle school students and the interest was just phenomenal,鈥 Phipps said. 鈥淲e had more than 70 students sign up saying they wanted this course, which is one-third of our middle school population. So, almost 1 in 3 students are in this aerospace class.鈥

A complementary off-shoot of the event was the location and tie-in to the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) XPONENTIAL 2023. It also helped students see first-hand the types of employment in this industry.

鈥淏eing there on the conference floor at this competition exposed the students to so many job opportunities that they wouldn鈥檛 have really thought of had they not seen it in person,鈥 Phipps said. 鈥淭hat was worth the price of admission just to get the students exposed to just the hundreds and hundreds of different job opportunities in the aerospace and autonomous vehicle market.鈥

With $1 million in drones on the floor of the conference, ADHUS students also were exposed to fixed wings, quadcopters, hecticopters and other unique models.

鈥淚 skipped attending the FLYRA Middle School State Track & Field Championship to attend this competition and I couldn't be happier with my decision because it opened my eyes to a broad horizon of future opportunities in technology,鈥 said Leah Forman, an eighth-grade student at ADHUS and Lift-OFF team member. 鈥淭he competition and conference were so much better than I could have imagined.鈥

Phipps also highlighted that the unique partnership between TCI and Florida Power & Light could have an indelible impact on the students鈥 futures.

鈥淔lorida Power & Light is a huge supporter of our program and a huge supporter of 麻豆女郎, and one of the things they have identified as a big need is drone pilots and drone engineers,鈥 he said. 鈥淎s they transition to using drones for powerline inspections or for risk management surveys after storms, it鈥檚 much easier and faster to send drones up to identify downed powerlines and to identify areas that need an immediate response, than it is to try and drive streets that may be blocked after a hurricane. They鈥檙e all in on drones trying to support the STEM pipeline for encouraging students to go into aerospace, so this program really fits.鈥

TCI鈥檚 success isn鈥檛 limited to just drones. Another group of students also recently traveled to the 2023 International SeaPerch Challenge, hosted by the University of Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., where three teams competed in underwater robotics. The top TCI team in this worldwide competition, the SeaOwls鈥 鈥淚r8e Pir8tes,鈥 finished 16th out of more than 50 groups.

鈥淚t was awesome to just have the light bulbs lit up and the kids on fire about seeing what鈥檚 out there in the future for them,鈥 said Phipps. 鈥淪ome amazing, amazing trips and we did well. We know we鈥檝e got a winning formula, and we鈥檝e got a super supportive administration. I just want to give a huge thank you to the administration for their support in allowing the students to go and represent the school, The Cane Institute program and 麻豆女郎 on these stages.鈥

听Team Members

听Drones in School National Competition

听Six Degree Drone Racing 鈥 Alex De Andrade, Mason DeSiato, Arish Dotiwala, Preston Hoover, Benjamin Slive, Julian Slive

听Lift-OFF 鈥 Zoey Agh, Leah Forman, Arianna Lian

听P.I.C. 鈥 Jacob Antoun, Savannah Cipyak, Cameron Klopfer, Alana Pugatch, Lucas Santiago, Layna Sigelakis, Ellen Vance

听FastSpeeds 鈥 Aaron Estenos, Spencer Frankel, Gustavo Marrero Fuste, Lars Wiik

听International SeaPerch Challenge

听SeaOwls Ir8e Pir8tes 鈥 Hudson Harr, John Weber

听SeaOwls SunRays 鈥 Zoe Agh, Leah Forman, Alana Pugatch, Julia Reynolds

听SeaOwls Ocean Dwellers 鈥 Tor Amundson, Navraj Dhillon, Preston Hoover, Ben Liu

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