Students of our Faculty joined the Academic Aviation Club, which performed remarkably well during the Drone Challenge 2026. The team triumphed in the Hydrolab and Last Mile Logistics competitions, and also won the Super Cup of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency for winning the highest number of competitions.

The competitions of the 13th Drone Challenge took place at the airport in Gliwice. For five days, academic teams and open classes faced tasks involving robotics, data communications, geoinformation, electronics, and aviation. This year's competition, organized by the Micro-Macro Institute Foundation, gathered 14 teams.

Our Faculty part of the Academic Aviation Club

The success had six fathers from our Faculty:

• Michał Szewczyk – president of the Academic Aviation Club, System Engineering, second level studies,
• Krzysztof Andrzejewski – IT Section Leader, Technical Computer Science, second level studies,
• Jan Maciuk – Applied Computer Science, second level studies,
• Piotr Henik – Technical Computer Science, second level studies,
• Michał Rycio – Cybersecurity, first level studies,
• Ksawery Szykuć – Applied Computer Science in English, first level studies.

The remaining participants from the other departments of the club were Oklesii Bielov, Miłosz Rogaliński, Kamil Kasztelan, and Małgorzata Plebańska.

Software for autonomous missions

An important part of the Academic Aviation Club is the IT section. Its members develop software used during advanced missions involving unmanned aerial vehicles.

Systems developed by students support, among others, autonomous flight, object recognition, cargo transport, and analysis of environmental samples. They showed a sample of their skills during this year's Advanced class mission at the SAE Aero Design competition in the United States. It involved autonomous flight, delivering the payload to the designated drop zone, locating it, and then safely landing.

Software was also of primary importance during the Drone Challenge, in which teams used advanced algorithms to carry out autonomous missions, such as object recognition, their transport, or environmental sample analysis.

The IT section also implements smaller projects supporting the club's activities. They include, for example, software for a static dynamometer used in selecting drives for competitive constructions, as well as tools supporting the design and testing of airplanes and drones.

“In the club, students of our Faculty do not limit themselves only to software. Many of them hold positions as project leaders and one is actually the president of the club. The interdisciplinary nature of the Academic Aviation Club allows students to develop their knowledge in the fields of aviation, electronics, and mechanics,” says Małgorzata Plebańska, marketing coordinator of the Academic Aviation Club.

Best in Hydrolab and Last Mile Logistics

In the Hydrolab competition, the WUST team won in the Advanced variant. The task involved a fully autonomous flight over a distance of three kilometres, collecting a water sample, and safely delivering it to the designated point.

The club achieved another victory in the Last Mile Logistics competition, which focuses on the use of drones in transport tasks. The WUST team was the only one in the entire competition to make it to the advanced stage of Last Mile Logistics.

Tasks of this type mirror real challenges related to autonomous shipment – from route planning and precise cargo delivery to ensuring the safety of the entire operation.

Super Cup and the opportunity for further tests

Representatives of Wrocław University of Science and Technology also received the Super Cup from the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, awarded to teams with the highest number of won competitions. The award includes, among others, the opportunity to conduct 14 days of tests at a chosen Polygonal-Training Centre of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA), which will allow the students to further develop and test their original solutions in professional conditions.

Interdisciplinary team

The Academic Aviation Club brings together students from many faculties of Wrocław University of Science and Technology, as well as from other universities in Wrocław. Its activity focuses on designing and building unmanned aerial vehicles and on supporting systems that enable their autonomous operation.

The team regularly participates in prestigious engineering competitions both in the country and abroad, for example in SAE Aero Design in the United States, Cargo Challenge in Germany, and Drone Challenge in Poland.