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A dedicated team of 20 engineering students from Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering (DJSCE), operating under the banner of DJS Skylark, has proudly secured three worldwide podium finishes at the prestigious SAE Aero Design West 2026 competition. Held in Fort Worth, Texas, USA from April 17 to April 19, the event brought together over 70 top collegiate engineering teams from across the globe to test their aerospace design, manufacturing, and communication prowess.
The SAE Aero Design competition is an elite real-world engineering challenge supported by major industry sponsors such as Lockheed Martin, SolidWorks, ANSYS, MathWorks, On shape, and the Gene Haas Foundation. It tasks university students with compressing a typical aircraft development cycle into a single academic year. Teams must conceptualize, design, fabricate, and fly radio-controlled (RC) aircraft optimized for specific payloads, structural stability, and aerodynamic mission requirements while navigating a strict set of rulebook constraints.
Demonstrating remarkable versatility, DJS Skylark fielded aircraft in all three highly competitive categories: the Regular, Micro, and Advanced Classes. The 20-member delegation traveled from Mumbai to showcase their year-long dedication to an international stage.
This year’s competition featured a formidable global roster, with 72 teams representing nine different countries. DJS Skylark competed alongside renowned international engineering programs, including Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tarleton State University, Wroclaw University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Penn State University. Berkeley, Polish Air force University, university of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M along with few Indian teams KJSCE, VIT Bhopal, VIT Vellore, BMS Bangalore
Outperforming numerous international teams, DJS Skylark’s meticulous engineering and compelling presentation skills earned them three major accolades:
● 1st Place Worldwide: Design Report (Micro Class)
● 2nd Place Worldwide: Oral Presentation (Regular Class)
● 3rd Place Worldwide: Oral Presentation (Micro Class)
● 2nd Place Worldwide: Oral Presentation (Regular Class)
● 3rd Place Worldwide: Oral Presentation (Micro Class)
DJS Skylark is the only top team to receive podium finish from India. Winning first place in the Micro Class Design Report underscores the team’s exceptional ability to conceptually optimize aircraft payload fractions while adhering to stringent dimensional packaging constraints. Furthermore, their dual podium finishes in the Oral Presentations highlight the student’s proficiency in defending their engineering decisions, technical readiness, and manufacturing processes before a panel of industry experts—a critical skill in the professional aerospace sector.
By successfully competing and winning across multiple classes against a diverse and competitive global field, the second- and third-year students of DJS Skylark have proven that their practical engineering skills, teamwork, and theoretical knowledge are truly world-class.
