NASA said Michigan State University engineering alumnus Gavin Gardner, who twice won the agency's University Student Research Challenge as a student, later co-founded AG3 Labs, a Michigan company that builds drones used in military training¹.

The agency published the account Wednesday as a feature on USRC, which it said awards grants to college teams that pursue NASA aeronautics research while also practicing budgets, fundraising and outreach¹.

Gardner told NASA that half the work is building a product and the other half is explaining it without engineering jargon¹.

In 2021 his team joined a USRC project called Aerial Intra-city Delivery Electric Drones, a cargo drone meant to dock on a bus, recharge, then fly the last mile¹. NASA said the team built and flew a full-scale drone but did not pursue a commercial version because of rules for flying over people in cities¹.

A second USRC award in 2023 funded the Laser Energized Aerial Drone System, which used a laser to send power to a drone in flight; the team flew a prototype¹. Contacts at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland led Gardner to a 2024 internship while he was in graduate school¹.

NASA said he took a master's degree in spring 2025 and, in late 2024, co-founded AG3 Labs with his brother Gryson Gardner and other USRC alumni after a friend suggested the Army could use low-cost drones to test counter-drone systems¹. An initial Army award led to more contracts, NASA said, and the company now can build thousands of drones a month¹.

Steven Holz, NASA's USRC manager, said Gardner's path shows what students can do with both a grant and guidance, and that the agency wants alumni to treat the program as a launchpad¹.

Sources

1. NASANASA University Challenge Ignites Trajectory of Drone Entrepreneur2:00 PM

Read the original at NASA ↗