Students from KRONE, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design and construction club affiliated with the College of Engineering at Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul), won a total of four awards at two national college student competitions, earning recognition for their UAV design and construction skills as well as their engineering problem-solving abilities.
 
Following their wins of the Excellence Award and Encouragement Award at the “GNU-Dassault Systèmes Korea CATIA Design Report Competition,” held at Pusan National University over two days from Friday, August 21, to Saturday, August 22, KRONE students went on to win the LIG Defense & Aerospace Capstone Design Award and the Excellence Award at the “8th National University Student Capstone Design Competition,” held at Korea National University of Transportation on Friday, August 28 (Fri), they also received the LIG Defense & Aerospace Capstone Design Award and an Excellence Award at the “8th National College Student Capstone Design Competition” held at Korea National University of Transportation.
 
At the “GNU-Dassault Systèmes Korea CATIA Design Report Competition,” two teams were honored for designing aircraft configurations and structures based on mission objectives and requirements. The GYU-LESS team won the Excellence Award for their “Design of an Aircraft with an Embedded EDF and Canard-Forward Wing Configuration.” By applying a single-engine embedded electric ducted fan (EDF) and a canard-forward wing configuration, they enhanced stability and maneuverability during high-angle-of-attack flight, and improved the aircraft’s maneuverability through a Y-shaped duct and a thrust-vectoring nozzle. The “Beom Olla-nda” team received the Encouragement Award for their “Design of a Tail-less Canard Fixed-Wing Aircraft Using CATIA.” They designed a tail-less aircraft capable of stable flight by incorporating fixed canards and a crank-type main wing, and combined a rear-propulsion propeller with a LiDAR-based reconnaissance system to enable simultaneous flight and reconnaissance missions.
 
Subsequently, at the “8th National Undergraduate Capstone Design Competition” hosted by the Korean Society for Aerospace Systems Engineering, KRONE students’ capabilities in designing and building future mobility solutions received high praise. The Universal Aero team won the LIG Defense & Aerospace Capstone Design Award for their project, “Design and Validation via a Scale Model of a Tiltrotor eVTOL Transport Aircraft for Disaster Response.” They proposed a tilt-rotor eVTOL capable of delivering supplies to disaster sites without landing directly and verified its feasibility through flight and performance tests using a scale model constructed with composite materials.
The Epius team won the Excellence Award for their project titled “Design of a Hexa Full Tilt-Rotor Mechanism eVTOL for UAM and Flight Validation through Scale Model Construction.” They designed an eVTOL for UAM incorporating the “Hexa Full Tilt-Rotor” system—in which all six rotors tilt—and Fowler flaps, and verified its vertical takeoff and landing, hovering, and flight control performance through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and actual flight tests.
 
This award is particularly significant because the students applied their major-specific knowledge—including design, structure, materials, and control—to actual aircraft development, personally carrying out the entire process from design to fabrication, flight, and performance testing. Professor Ha Chang Wan of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kookmin University’s College of Engineering, the KRONE team’s advisor, stated, “ ‘This award is a valuable achievement resulting from the students applying the knowledge they gained in their major to the actual design and fabrication of an aircraft, and working together as a team to overcome numerous trials and errors and resolve challenges,’ he said. ‘I also deeply thank the university for its generous encouragement and support, which ensured the students’ challenges bore fruit.’ He added, ‘I hope this experience serves as a valuable foundation for the students to grow into engineering leaders who will spearhead the aerospace and future mobility sectors.’
 
KRONE is an academic club centered on students from the College of Engineering at Kookmin University that designs and builds unmanned aerial vehicles and future mobility solutions. The students apply theories learned in the classroom—such as aerodynamics, structural mechanics, mechanical design, and control engineering—to the actual construction and flight of aircraft, and through team-based projects, they are building practical engineering competencies ranging from design to manufacturing and testing.
 
Meanwhile, Kookmin University, celebrating its 80th anniversary, is preparing for a new leap toward the next 100 years under the vision of “A University Setting the Standard for Higher Education” and the slogan “Make the Rule, Break the Rule.” To this end, the university has established “KMU VISION 2035: EDGE,” a mid- to long-term development strategy, and selected eight specialized fields to intensively strengthen the university’s competitiveness. The College of Engineering at Kookmin University plans to cultivate talent equipped with practical skills and interdisciplinary thinking to lead the future mobility industry, focusing on “Mobility,” one of the eight areas of specialization.