Osbourn Park Students Win NASA Challenge For Wildfire-Fighting Drone Idea

MANASSAS, VA — In the NASA "Dream with Us" Challenge, students were tasked with designing new aviation to respond to natural disasters. Two Osbourn Park High School students earned first place in the high school category for their design of a drone to fight wildfires and find missing persons, according to Prince William County Public Schools.

The NASA challenge was open to students between ages 13 to 18. Participating students were faced with the real-world challenge of improving NASA Aeronautics’ disaster response efforts with aviation to help reduce natural disaster risks, mitigate natural disaster, or rebuild after a natural disaster.

Isabel Rojas and Devin Wanchoo, who are rising sophomores at Prince William County's Osbourn Park High School, designed sketches for a wildfire-fighting drone called PushPak. The design called for thermal cameras to detect wildfire hotspots as well as missing persons. The drone's light detection and ranking camera aims to map out the area and assess the health of vegetation, which can assist with prevention and rebuilding after wildfires. In addition, the PushPak design called for a tank filled with extinguishing substances and fire retardant, as well as planning seeds and a distributor for rebuilding efforts. A communication system in the drone would allow it to communicate with people and warn animals in areas impacted by wildfires.

The students' drone design indicated it would charge through solar power, and its power-generating propellers would generate energy while flying. It would also have input and output capabilities to help emergency personnel to power other devices and have data collection to help with early wildfire detection.

"Winning the challenge made me feel that all the time spent working on this project was well worth it and the outcome aligned perfectly to show what it really means to dream big," said Rojas.

"The NASA challenge combined my passions for the outdoors, aerospace, and conservation. It was a chance to dream big without worrying about time limits or money," added Wanchoo.

Rojas and Wanchoo were recognized by NASA during a virtual ceremony.