AHS International earlier this month awarded $12,500 in prizes to teams of graduate and undergraduate students in its 34th Annual Student Design Competition.

The 2017 Student Design Competition called for a “24-Hour Hovering Machine Conceptual Design.” Students had to design an aircraft that could hover for a full day "over three stations 1 km apart, carrying a human-sized payload of 80 kg," according to AHS' website.

The University of Maryland took home first place in both graduate and undergraduate categories. For the undergraduate winner, “Chezoia” is a multi-rotor platform. For the graduate winner, "Elysium" is an autonomous hybrid-electric twin-rotor helicopter.

The rest of the winners in both categories include Georgia Institute of Technology, Universite de Sherbrooke, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, PFH Private University of Applied Sciences and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

Each winning team is awarded a cash prize. In addition, one member of each of the first-place teams is invited to AHS International’s 74th Annual Forum and Technology Display May 14 to 17, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona. There those team members will present the details of their designs.

Requests for proposals to next year's competition are open until Feb. 8, 2018.