From Lab to Launch, OBU’s Engineering Students Excel in Drone Challenge

December 16, 2025

On a snowy December day, the OBU Engineering Program launched its annual drone competition, bringing energy and innovation to the frozen soccer fields on campus. Forty-five students across nine teams tested their custom-built drones in a 30-minute challenge to deliver the most amount of simulated food packets with accuracy and efficiency.

Designed by Dr. Chuck Baukal, director of the engineering program, the competition introduced students to the complexities of real-world engineering problems. Working within a $500 budget, each team modified or repurposed existing drones to meet the challenge requirements: maintain a minimum flight altitude of 10 feet, carry multiple packets and deliver them as close to the target as possible. The packets, modeled after United Nations food supplies for malnourished infants, offered students insight into humanitarian engineering applications—where drones may face threats from the ground in crisis zones.

“This project gives them a taste of a project that does not have just one solution,” Baukal said. “Real engineering problems rarely have just one solution and the problems themselves are almost never the same as textbook problems, which generally have only one solution.”

Although most participants were freshmen with no prior engineering coursework, the project emphasized essential industry skills such as problem solving, teamwork, communication and project management. Students were able to purchase new or used drones, but quickly found that drones available in their budget were not meant to carry heavy loads.

Nearly all teams opted to modify traditional drone designs using 3D-printed components  and commercially-available droppers. One team experimented with an airplane-style drone, which took a dramatic nosedive before being quickly repaired with duct tape.

Teams earned points for the number of packets delivered, the accuracy of their drops and for minimizing cost. Throughout the competition, collaboration emerged as a hallmark of the program’s culture, with students sharing parts, batteries and advice to support one another.

For freshmen Miles Buss and Jadon Williams, the project proved both challenging and formative.

“Our biggest challenge was the time frame,” Buss said. “It’s a really short time frame to get the entire project done. A lot of people had scheduling issues, so we couldn’t meet as often as we liked to practice.”

Williams’ team battled a lag in the drone’s camera feed sent to his phone via Bluetooth, yet still achieved a drop of less than an inch from the target.

“Sometimes it’s good to have a leader, but you also have to make sure that everyone knows what they’re doing,” Williams said, emphasizing the importance of teamwork across all nine groups.

Team number three, consisting of Lucas Hernandez, Deacon Pickett, Hatcher Ritchie, Haylie Swanson and William Urchison finished in first place with 1,177 points out of a possible 1,200 points. They delivered the second most packets, were the most accurate dropping payloads and had the least overall cost.

The OBU Engineering Program continues to experience rapid growth. After opening in fall 2023 with an initial goal of 12 students and enrolling 37, the program has expanded to 84 students in fall 2025, with a target of 200 students in the coming years. OBU currently offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

“The pent-up demand for a faith-based program in the region, as well as OBU’s reputation for producing quality graduates, is part of what explains the rapid growth of this program,” Baukal said.

Baukal added, “As the drone competition demonstrates, OBU engineering students are already embracing creativity, collaboration and problem-solving, foundations that will continue to propel the program’s bright future.”

For more information about the OBU engineering program, visit okbu.edu/programs/engineering.