During the recent China Universities Aircraft Design Competition (CUADC), the GTIIT CUADC Team made great achievements: both of their two missions advanced to the national finals, with the short-take-off-and-landing mission winning the national first prize and the national second prize for the design report. 

This breakthrough wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of every team member and the dedication of the faculty advisors. Today, let’s step inside this team to uncover their stories.

Back in high school, Lu Yiyue—a 2023 undergraduate in Mathematics with Computer Science (MCS) at GTIIT—fell in love with aircraft, and this passion followed him to university. Less than a year after enrolling, he and his classmate Chen Mingxi decided to build GTIIT’s first student aircraft team together.

Starting from zero means looking for directions in the dark. However, by utilizing their respective strengths, the two students quickly defined their roles. Chen Mingxi, the head of GTIIT innovation club, took charge of operations, using his management skills to organize the team and handle daily tasks. Lu Yiyue, with his strong technical background, became the technical leader. Their recruitment drive attracted students from various programs like MCS, Mechanical Engineering and Robotics (MER) and Chemistry Engineering. Lu Yiyue said, “everyone contributes their unique strengths and maximize their potential here.”

GTEC and Assoc. Prof. Liu Mingyi from MER highly supported this project. Since the early stages, Assoc. Prof. Liu has been deeply involved in the team, offering crucial guidance on the structural and aerodynamic design of the aircraft, which also sets the foundation for its overall design. Beyond theoretical support, he also provided lab equipments such as laser cutters and 3D printers, which significantly reduced the time for design iterations. When mentioning him, the two students expressed deep gratitude.

“GTIIT focuses on question-based teaching to foster students’ independent thinking and hands-on skills.” In Assoc. Prof. Liu’s mechatronics course, students need to do a project by themselves including assembling circuits, programming in C, controlling algorithms, measuring data and analyzing data. These skills give them the confidence to fight for the contest from zero.

Aim for the champions

Although being first-time competitors with limited resources, they still decided to choose the most difficult path—built all systems and platforms by themselves. “We aim to reach the level of past champion team.” Technical Captain Lu Yiyue set this ambitious goal early on as their driving force.

Days flew by as the lab buzzed with machinery roar and the test airfield saw new structures weekly. The team constructed experimental setups like large-scale thermal cutters, multi-parameter thrust platforms and solar power instruments, mastering the workflow from component fabrication to performance validation. Within a year, they established a studio, a testing platform and the whole project system.

How to balance study and competition? Yu Qinrong said the secret is “shift scheduling”. On the weekly meetings, they assigned roles based on urgency. Exams weeks arranged less works, while holidays more. Differing academic schedules among the team members also ensured steady progress of the preparation.

The road to competition was challenging. From the first phototype to the final model, the team faced countless iterations and problems like structural failures, insufficient thrust and weight imbalance. The most critical moment came just 20 days before the competition. “We found the front landing gear kept snapping during heavy-load landings.” Lu Yiyue explained that if this happens during the competition, they will get a zero score. Pleasure of failures, frequent repairs and coming deadline nearly overwhelmed the team.

Yet, times of trying gradually improved the landing success rate. Though still below target, there was no time to delay – they had to move testing to the competition site, working day and night. Over 70 successful landings were achieved before the competition. Eventually, their initial bold claim to be the champion turned into a perfect landing in the final.

The Warm Moment

At the national competition, facing strong teams like Tsinghua University, Beihang University, Zhejiang University and Sun Yat-sen University, GTIIT team won high praise from the judges for their solid preparation and calm performance. Their solar-powered aircraft mission advanced to the national final, and short-take-off-and-landing mission got fourth place in total score, securing the national first prize. The detailed engineering logic and innovative approach also earned their design report a national second prize.

More unforgettable than the medals were moments of friendship. During the last trial flight, the team’s practice aircraft crashed into a deep rice field, and the payload for the formal competition was still inside – they had to get it back. “A student from the Naval Aviation University paused his own preparation, operated a drone to help us search the area and analyze the crash site. Finally, the payload was found back.” The competition was not only a technical contest but also a display of warm and mutual support among competitors. Such kindness across teams left a lasting impression on GTIIT students.

After a year of preparation, GTIIT CUADC team not only mastered the entire progress of UAV design and manufacturing but also developed a unique research culture guided by first principles, solving problems from the basics rather than relying on experience. This thinking mode allowed them to shine in their first appearance on the national stage. “In addition to the competition, we also had in-depth exchanges with many strong teams and learned from each other. We look forward to future competitions with them,” said Lu Yiyue.

“From a blank paper to standing on the national award podium, their journey has been full of challenges, and this achievement is never easy," said Associate Professor Liu Mingyi, expressing his approval of the students' efforts. He stated that GTIIT will continue to provide rich innovative resources for students and support the team with solid training to achieve better results in future competitions.

Text: GTIIT News & Public Affairs

Photos: CUADC Team