Congratulations to Rishi Kumar Srinivasan (MEng ’25), Andrew Park (MS ’25),Atiila Kharobo (MS ’25, continuing PhD), Jorge Duarte, (MS ’25, continuing PhD), andJordan Kam (continuing BS) who won the “Atech Award for Most Innovative Design for Air Mobility” at the CITRIS Aviation Prize Competition.
Srinivasan, Park, Kharabo, Duarte, and Kam came together to create a design in Fall 2024 and were chosen to represent UC Berkeley in the CITRIS Aviation Prize competition in January. Since then, they have been working diligently to present their final designs to a panel of judges from CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, the NASA Ames Research Center, and sponsoring companies and organizations.
“Working with so many industry partners and their constant feedback shaped the development of our eVTOL network scheduler, simulation, and a high-fidelity trajectory evaluator using NASA's GUAM model,” says Srinivasan, on behalf of the team. “We now have an implementation plan that is supported by our complementary simulations and can be deployed to any geography in the world.”
The competition challenged students to develop solutions for the future of air mobility using eVTOLs — the so-called “flying cars.” The winning presentations were assessed on innovation, environmental impact, and integration with existing transportation systems.
The team was under the guidance of Civil and Environmental Engineering ProfessorRaja Senguptaand LecturerVishwanath Bulusu“We also owe our gratitude to many judges and advisors from the various UC campuses, NASA Ames Research Center, MathWorks, Archer, Atech, and Supernal for guiding us every month throughout the competition,” says Srinivasan.
The Atech award, co-presented to the UC Davis and UC Berkeley teams, recognized the most creative and sustainable projects for connecting UC campuses withNASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administrationfacilities in California.
Now in its third iteration, the CITRIS Aviation Prize launched in 2021 with a mission to advance the science and design of sustainable air mobility.
“Our participation reinforces Atech’s commitment to one of the most promising fields in global aviation and highlights our dedication to innovation, knowledge, and the next generation,” says Mauro do Santo Junior, head of innovation and engineering at Atech. “And there’s more: five UC students will join Atech to contribute to real-world projects on our technology teams through the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program.”