US congratulates Pakistani students after they best MIT, Stanford in aeronautics contest

A team of brilliant Pakistani students won second prize in an international aeronautics and astronautics contest, outclassing their peers from the world’s top ranking universities.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad praised the Pakistani youths in a tweet, saying: “Congrats to Team Invictus, a group of Pakistani students from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) for winning 2nd place in the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Design, Build and Fly) competition, beating MIT & Stanford!”

According to an announcement by Pakistan’s GIKI University, the team’s proposal scored 85.9, a record-best second ranking globally, and first in Asia.

Students from across the world participated in the competition, including renowned universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford.

During the contest, the teams were tasked with designing, manufacturing and demonstrating the capabilities of their unmanned radio-controlled aircraft, which are designed to meet a specific mission.

In first place came students of Columbia University for their “sharp-edge handheld identifier and remover in low-gravity extravehicular environments.”