Aerospace News — The Army's only fundamental research laboratory teamed up with Berkeley Drone Technologies to run the first-ever Multi-Drone Optimization Challenge, bringing together University of California, Berkeley students and local high schoolers at the university's Richmond Field Station for a hands-on drone engineering competition.
Multi-Drone Student Challenge
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| Image Used For Representational Purposes Only |
What Students Actually Built
Rather than a one-day event, the program walked participants through the entire engineering process behind building an unmanned aerial vehicle, touching on everything from sophisticated sensor technology to the software that allows drones to operate autonomously in coordinated swarms. Students split into teams to design, assemble, program, and ultimately test their own individual drones as well as multi-drone swarms in real flight conditions.
Putting the Drones to the Test
The program wrapped up with a live competition held in the airspace above the Richmond Field Station. Teams worked from standardized kits to build their drones, then used them to map out assigned areas. After completing individual flights, teams merged their drones into coordinated swarms, allowing them to directly compare how much more effective multi-drone mapping was compared to single-drone efforts—and to weigh the practical costs and benefits of deploying multiple drones together versus flying solo.
A Collaboration Spanning Government, Academia, and Industry
Organizers pointed to the event as a strong example of how partnerships across different sectors can come together productively. The effort brought together the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, the Army Research Laboratory, Berkeley Drone Technologies, and UAVs@Berkeley—the university's flagship student drone organization.
Berkeley Drone Technologies designed the core curriculum used throughout the event, while engineering school leadership and the Richmond Field Station granted access to their sprawling 185-acre testing grounds. Equipment support also came from Jack Russi, CEO of STOPFIRES, a California wildfire-detection company.
Where the Idea Originated
The decision to hold the event at the Richmond Field Station traces back to an earlier visit by Army leadership. Dr. Pete Khooshabeh, who leads ARL West, recalled bringing a former DEVCOM deputy commanding general to the site in 2021 to witness a joint drone flight test between ARL and UC Berkeley conducted in a simulated dense forest environment.
That visit left a lasting impression on Khooshabeh, who said he'd been drawn to the site's potential for both outreach programs and larger demonstrations ever since. That long-standing interest eventually led to a formal partnership with Professor Tarek Zohdi, who directs the Richmond Field Station.
Meeting a Broader Defense Mandate
Khooshabeh noted that building this kind of foundation carries strategic weight for the Department of War more broadly. The Defense Hackathon Act for Fiscal Year 2024 requires each branch of the military to hold an annual hackathon, and ARL sees this inaugural hardware-centered event as meaningful progress toward satisfying that requirement.
He added that outreach grants like this one are essential for reaching new groups of students and technical talent, and that running the program alongside strong academic and industry partners lays valuable groundwork for future joint hackathon efforts.
Building the Next Generation of the Defense Workforce
Khooshabeh framed the broader outreach effort as a long-term investment in the nation's security workforce. He said the ultimate hope is for participating students to go on to earn prestigious opportunities such as National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowships or SMART scholarships as they continue their academic paths—creating a direct pipeline connecting talented young engineers to the Army's ongoing mission.
A Researcher's Perspective on the Results
Christian Brommer, a postdoctoral researcher and Oak Ridge Associated Universities fellow at ARL, spoke to the deeper value of the event from his vantage point in aerial robotics. He said watching students apply new tools to achieve integration work that would typically take weeks was genuinely impressive, and that the challenge proved something important: given the right resources and mentorship, students are capable of moving quickly from concept to working prototype—in this case, literally getting their creations airborne.
About the Army Research Laboratory
DEVCOM ARL functions as the Army's only fundamental research laboratory, acting as a connective hub between military, academic, and industry researchers. Operating under both the U.S. Army Futures and Concepts Command and the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command, the lab conducts research recognized globally, with a mission focused on speeding up the development of transformative technologies for the future force.