{"id":230901,"date":"2026-04-01T22:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/230901\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T22:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:46:08","slug":"leader-in-the-making-ut-austin-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/230901\/","title":{"rendered":"Leader in the Making – UT Austin News"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his senior year, Andrew Doty, B.S. \u201925, did not expect his capstone aircraft design project to grow into a professional effort tackling wildfires. The project, part of UT\u2019s participation in the multiyear XPRIZE Wildfire contest<\/a>, focused on early detection and suppression, where minutes can mean the difference between containment and catastrophe. The UT-led FLARE-X team brings together students, researchers and faculty from UT, the University of Southampton, the University of Edinburgh and the Texas A&M Forest Service.<\/p>\n

Traditional wildfire response often relies on large aircraft, but Andrew and his teammates were tasked with a different approach<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not use a bunch of tiny planes instead of one big one?\u201d Andrew says. \u201cBefore fires get too big, our smaller, autonomous aircraft go in and put them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He notes that people usually think of wildfires as an unstoppable force, \u201cthis raging fire going down, sweeping through and ruining people\u2019s livelihoods,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t have to be the case. \u201cEvery fire starts somewhere,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are hundreds of wildfires happening at any one time. You\u2019re talking about billions of dollars in damage, lots of lives lost. The technology we\u2019re working on is about addressing that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"infographic<\/p>\n

Bringing that idea to life required an intense pace and a level of commitment far beyond a typical class project. Balancing coursework and a remote internship at Lockheed Martin was demanding, but Andrew says the experience reflected real industry conditions. By the end of the course, the team had built an autonomous fleet of small aircraft \u2014 uncrewed drones \u2014 that could fly and drop fire suppression material with pinpoint accuracy.<\/p>\n

Andrew received the T. W. Whaley Jr. Friends of Alec Endowed Scholarship, which helped cover tuition and gave him the flexibility to focus on coursework and hands-on research.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Andrew continued working on the project full time for AIVE, a startup that grew out of the FLARE-X effort and supports the development of wildfire detection and suppression technology. As aircraft lead, he helped guide a redesign that made the planes more efficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that first takeoff after so many late nights working on it was awesome,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cWatching it fly and seeing everything work and come together the way you imagined was really exciting.\u201d
\"a<\/p>\n

The project gave Andrew hands-on experience with every stage of building an aircraft, from early ideas to testing and design reviews. It also helped him grow as a leader, as he took on responsibility and helped guide other students on the team. Along the way, he learned from experienced mentors, including aerospace engineering professor Luis Sentis and professor of practice Greg Zwernemann, who has more than four decades of experience in aircraft systems development.<\/p>\n

\"group<\/p>\n

That work was made possible through philanthropic support connected to AIVE, the joint venture created by Sentis, engineering professor Adela Ben-Yakar and the Leo Lion Co., an investment group, to support the FLARE-X project at UT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are already performing in incredible ways, but with this funding, they can take their education to the next level, connecting what they learn to competitions and eventually to industry,\u201d Sentis says. \u201cThis experience will help prepare them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Andrew, that support made the difference between a classroom project and a career-defining opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of experience wouldn\u2019t have been possible without philanthropy,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cWithout their donations, I wouldn\u2019t be here. I wouldn\u2019t have a job, and I wouldn\u2019t be able to work on this cool project.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like to support future leaders like Andrew, please consider making a gift<\/a>\u00a0as we enter the final months of the What Starts Here campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his senior year, Andrew Doty, B.S. \u201925, did not expect his capstone aircraft design project to grow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11918,132,134,133,8014,13178,36102,2220,25719,3621,11657],"class_list":{"0":"post-230901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-alumni","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-cockrell-school-of-engineering","13":"tag-faculty","14":"tag-launching-leaders","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-statewide-impact","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-what-starts-here-campaign-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}