Articles

HCC student team named a finalist in NASA aviation competition

Mar 27, 2025


Maxwell Singleton, Ethan Pham, Evelyn Aranivar and Reymundo RomanFrom left to right: HCC students Maxwell Singleton, Ethan Pham, Evelyn Aranivar and Reymundo Roman.

Four Houston Community College students are finalists in a NASA aviation competition for their plan to use swarming drones and AI to quell the devastation caused to agriculture by feral hogs.

Led by mechanical engineering major Maxwell Singleton, the students are refining their proposal called the Hog Aerial Mitigation System (HAMS), which would employ swarming drones to surveil agricultural lands to spot and cull feral swine that cause an estimated $2.5 billion annually to crops and waterways while harming livestock and other wildlife.

“In Texas alone, feral hogs cause more than $400 million in damage each year,” Singleton said. “It’s a tough-to-solve issue but we believe that drones and computer vision can play a big role in finding a solution.”

The project is pitted against similar initiatives efforts from student teams at Columbia University, Boston University, University of California Davis, Auburn University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, South Dakota State University and University of Tulsa student teams.

“The HCC team has done an absolutely amazing job,” said Dr. G. Raymond Brown, professor and program coordinator in HCC’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics program. “To stand shoulder to shoulder with teams from leading universities is truly a stellar accomplishment. It indicates just how well-prepared and motivated HCC students are in advancing innovative ideas and achieving their goals.”

The team received a $9,000 stipend to help get them to the ‘Blue Skies Forum’ at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, Ca. in late May.

They will present their research and design concepts to NASA and industry experts. The winning team members will earn the opportunity to intern at one of the space program’s aeronautics centers during the coming academic year.

In addition to Singleton, the all-Houston team includes Evelyn Aranivar, a freshman mechanical engineering major; aerospace engineering sophomore Reymundo Roman; and Ethan Pham, a junior majoring in AI and robotics.

The team produced a video as part of their entry. It is found at https://youtu.be/BzKsBm4gras. 

"Our students took great advantage of our excellent facilities at Northwest College to produce their video," said Zachary Hodges, Ed.D., Northwest College president. "We are very proud that they are devising a project that is so relevant in solving a real-world problem."  

The students are submitting a final paper and infographic that summarizes their concept and will make a 20-minute oral presentation before NASA judges and industry experts.

“This student team’s achievement is placing them in the national spotlight,” said HCC Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D. “We are so fortunate to have students and faculty leading the way in our groundbreaking AI and Robotics program.”