College of Engineering & Computer Science Professor Utpal Roy and Ph.D. student Yunpeng Li won $250,000 this week from the Genius NY program, the world’s largest business competition for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The competition attracted 250 entries from all around the world, with six finalists competing for $3 million in prizes at the Marriott Downtown (former Hotel Syracuse).
Roy and Li developed a software solution to integrate drone fleet traffic management systems, and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, with data analytics tools, Internet-of-Things functionality and UAS operating systems. It is the first full spectrum solution for fleet UAS operations that can access and evaluate autonomous and intelligent decisions based on real-time activity data collected, such as UAS itself, flight logs, vibration data, battery and rotor data, to better tune performance.
The venture, UsPLM, will provide user friendly, affordable and customizable software that will help UAS users and manufacturers sort through the massive amount of data related to the UAS development and operations.
The team worked with the Blackstone LaunchPad and the Couri Hatchery, as well as other SU campus resources, to prepare for the pitch.