The Chandler Community Drone Team took home the Best Communication Award trophy in a state-wide aerial drone competition sponsored by Chandler-based Education Empowers.
The team, coached by Alan Tu and Emile Davies-Venn of Chandler, includes: Nitya Mamillapalli, 7th grade, ACP Middle School; Ritwik Reddy Sura, fourth grade, CTA- Independence; Krishiv Patel, third grade, Knox Gifted Academy; Mathew Davies-Venn, fifth grade, New Vistas Center for Education; Tanuj Aleti, sixth grade, BASIS Chandler; Maer Tu, sixth grade, Hartford Elementary; and Unays Alvi, seventh grade, Chandler Prep Academy.
Education Empowers Inc. is a Chandler nonprofit founded by Anna Prakash-Ashton and her daughter Elaina Ashton.“Our mission is to welcome, engage, educate, and inspire youth and empower our diverse communities through education programs,” Prakash-Ashton said.
“We focus on STEAM career exploration programs, robotics, drones, coding, AI, and sustainability education to instill passion for learning and discovery, confidence to enable scholarship and career opportunities for all.”
In all, 14 teams competed in a series of challenges that included drone piloting, drone coding and communications.
In the high school Division, Superstition Mountain Branch Boys & Girls Club Drone Team took home the championship trophy while Saint Peter’s Indian Mission Catholic School’s team won the middle school trophy.
The championship award is given to the team with the highest score for the piloting and the autonomous challenges.
Nitya said she “likes working as a team to overcome challenges” while Ritwik said he enjoys drone technology because of “the thrill of controlling something real with my own commands.”
Krishiv said he liked the competition because it “provided unique opportunity of learning and entertainment at same time. I loved piloting the drone through the challenging course.”
Mathew added, “My favorite part of the program was piloting the drones as it required great team work and communication among us to be successful.”
The Chandler team also was grateful to be part of the competition. “Through the drone competition, Education Empow-ers helped us soar higher, think sharper, and learn by doing,” said Tanuj.
Maer added, “I was never really good at flying drones so it was fun to learn how to fly them and code them with my friends.”
Unays said, “I really enjoyed taking part in the Education Empowers drone competition. It was very fun, enjoyable, and I had a lot of fun piloting the drone.
It was nice that we were able to earn the communication award too.”
Education Empowers partners with local schools, Indigenous communities, and the local Boys & Girls Clubs to bring year-round hands-on programs.
The drone competitions are organized in spring and the LEGO robotics competitions are organized in fall to benefit children K-12th grades.
Information: contact@educationempowers.org