Teams from KPI, KhAI and DonNTU triumph in “Drone with Legs” student engineering challenge

Teams from the Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”, and the Donetsk National Technical University emerged as winners of the student engineering challenge “Drone with Legs”, organised by Brave1.

Thirty-three teams from 15 universities and 4 colleges participated in the competition. Students developed prototypes of mechanical attachments for FPV drones, enabling the aircraft to land on various natural and artificial elevated surfaces, remain stationary without consuming power, and execute a controlled release to resume flight.

The winners shared a prize fund of 90,000 UAH.

Ukrainian defence enterprises, including Darts, General Chereshnya, and Defender Dynamics, selected 10 teams demonstrating the greatest potential for practical application. This shortlist included representatives from KPI, KhAI, DonNTU, as well as Lviv, Poltava, and Zhytomyr Polytechnics and the Kyiv School of Economics. The selected teams will refine their solutions over the coming month under the mentorship of R&D specialists from leading Ukrainian defence-tech companies.

During the event, Brave1 unveiled a platform for student internships within the defence-tech sector, developed in collaboration with robota.ua. The platform offers paid internships with flexible part-time engagement of up to 50%. Forty-four companies have already joined the initiative, and the inaugural internship offers are now available on the platform.

The Brave Students initiative is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, within the framework of the EU4UA Defence Tech project, funded by the European Union and implemented by BRDO in partnership with Brave1.