The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for an interdisciplinary undergraduate education: Solving quadrotors limitations

It is the purpose of this paper to encourage the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the development of interdisciplinary engineering education projects. The use of UAVs is an excellent tool to gather students from various engineering and science fields. This paper explores the different features that a four-rotor UAV is used for STEM education including the training of undergraduate students. In this paper, it is discussed how an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate students from University of Puerto Rico-Mayagiiez are working together to provide solutions to the encountered problems regarding quadrotors. The interdisciplinary team was composed by undergraduate students from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer engineering. The study problem being treated is the issue of range and endurance of quadrotors in closed perimeters. This project provides undergraduate engineering students the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge gained at courses and provides hands-on experience. The study of UAVs is an excellent tool to motivate students involved in this kind of projects to pursue graduate school, because it is a research topic that can be developed in order to make an expertise in a specific area of research. In addition, the UAV project has got the attention of undeclared freshmen and sophomore students, and it was used to encourage them to pursue studies in science and engineering. Throughout the semester, the interdisciplinary team attended several outreach activities directed towards high school and middle school students. In these activities, it was described how engineering students from various fields can work together to develop a physical object, in this case the quadcopter, and apply the knowledge learned in classes as well as acquire new skills that would otherwise not be obtained in normal courses. Finally, in the paper it is discussed the interdisciplinary student´s learning skills developed as part of this UAV proje- t.