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September 15, 2024 – A team of engineering students from Chandigarh University is set to develop unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) specifically designed for border surveillance, following their victory in an aerial drone competition at the university’s inaugural Build Summit 2026. The initiative is a direct collaboration with Johnnette Technologies Private Limited, a defense and aerospace technology firm based in India.
The summit, themed “Innovating for Bharat,” was launched on Engineers’ Day and brought together more than 500 participants from 16 universities across India. Three top winners in the Aerial Ops – Drone Challenge — Harry Tanwar, Arush Singh, and Navjosh Singh with Anurag — will now work on prototype UAVs aimed at enhancing monitoring capabilities along India’s borders. This move aligns with the Indian government’s push for indigenous defense technologies and the “Make in India” initiative.
The Build Summit 2026 featured a 24-hour hackathon called byteBuilt 1.0, organized in partnership with byteXL, where 41 teams competed. The winning team, MediSphere from Chandigarh University, developed an AI-powered healthcare platform providing symptom assessment, emergency SOS, smart medical records, and medicine delivery for campus communities. Second prize went to Dabang Coders of Panjab University, and third to CodeBliss of Chandigarh University.
In the RC Off-Road Robo Race, teams Techab, Viksit Velocity, and Baba Group secured the top three positions. They will collaborate with industry partners on autonomous vehicle development, expanding the summit’s hands-on engineering focus.
Technology exhibition Innovision showcased over 50 student projects, including:
Former Head of the Nuclear Controls and Planning Wing, Department of Atomic Energy, Dr. Arun Kumar Nayak, urged the university to establish a Centre for Nuclear Studies. “If we do not innovate, India cannot make the transformational jump to a $35 trillion economy by 2047,” he said, proposing that nuclear-powered growth begin at Chandigarh University.
Gursharan Singh, Senior Vice President of Backend Operations at Micron Technology, stressed that engineers must ensure technology solves meaningful problems. Swapnil Jain, Co-Founder of Ather Energy, noted India’s shift from assembler to builder, calling for strong industry-academia collaboration.
Chandigarh University Managing Director Jai Inder Singh Sandhu said, “The Build Summit symbolizes building solutions with available tools to address real-life challenges. For a Viksit Bharat, we need infrastructure and the energy of our youth.”
CB Ojha, Chief Engineer of PWD Chandigarh, urged engineers to consider sustainability and inclusivity in future designs.
Johnnette Technologies, the industry partner for the UAV project, specializes in surveillance systems for military and paramilitary forces. The collaboration reflects a growing trend among Indian universities to involve students in real-world defense applications. Similar initiatives have been launched by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop swarms of surveillance drones for high-altitude border areas.
The student team will receive mentorship and technical resources from Johnnette over the next six months, aiming to produce a functional prototype that could be tested for border patrol use. This hands-on project addresses a national security priority while giving young engineers critical aerospace industry experience.
Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade autonomous institution, ranked by QS and approved by UGC. Located near Chandigarh in Punjab, it offers over 109 undergraduate and postgraduate programs in engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, and more. The university has consistently been recognized for its strong placement record. Visit:
(This article is adapted from a press release and supplemented with industry analysis. The original announcement was provided by PRNewswire.)
