FEATURE (continued)
Students have spent the past two semesters focusing on this project, according to Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering Dr. J. Gordon Leishman, the team’s chief faculty advisor. “The team has been ranked in the top three positions for the past three years, so this first-place win also caps off an unprecedented string of previous successes,” Dr. Leishman said. “Winning this year is a testament to the DBF team’s continued dedication, creativity, technical proficiency and exceptional teamwork, and it sets the gold standard for excellence in aerospace engineering education.” The Prescott team also set a high standard at the competition with their aircraft called “PABLO,” which stands for Public Airborne Biomedical Lifting Operations. “As an entirely undergraduate club comprised of primarily freshmen and sophomore students, we are overjoyed to bring home a top-10 win,” said Matthew Marandola (’24), an Aerospace Engineering student and the team’s project manager. He added that the team adopted a new report-writing technique that boosted its score and promoted more thorough documentation habits. Creating new team positions, such as test evaluation lead and chief report writer, also provided a more explicit delegation of responsibilities for everyone. “We had about 10 freshmen last year gain internships in their first summer by referring to their experiences at Design/Build/Fly. A third of the interns chosen by Boeing on our campus came directly from Design/Build/Fly.” Matthew Marandola ’24 Aerospace Engineering Marandola was a manufacturing engineering intern at The Boeing Company in 2023 and worked in stability and control during the summer of 2024. The Prescott team’s faculty mentor is Dr. Johann Dorfling, the Raisbeck Engineering Design/Build/Test endowed distinguished chair and assistant professor of Aerospace Engineering.
15 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
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