A team composed of five University of Tulsa mechanical engineering seniors has been named a finalist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2025 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition.
This is UTulsa’s first time to compete in Gateways, and the College of Engineering & Computer Science’s team was one of only eight universities selected to advance. Other finalists include Auburn University, Boston University, Columbia University, and the University of California, Davis.
NASA’s Gateways to Blue Skies Competition provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary teams of university students from all academic levels and majors to tackle significant challenges and opportunities for the aviation industry through a new project theme each year. Sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, this year’s competition asked teams to conceptualize aviation-related systems that can be applied to agriculture by 2035 with the goal of improving agriculture production, efficiency, environmental impact, and extreme weather/climate resilience.
UTulsa’s CattleLog Cattle Management System was designed to help small farmers stay competitive in a world dominated by large farms. After weeks of extensive research and fieldwork, they found that small-scale ranchers were losing a significant amount of money each year to preventable situations like injury, disease, heat stroke, and wandering cattle. The CattleLog Cattle Management System uses specially designed ear tags on cows connected to drones that can transmit and locate every cow in a herd.
“The system can map the locations on a grid of the farmer’s land and send alerts if a cow is missing or has been stationary for a long period, which could indicate injury or heat stroke,” explained Marie Moran, assistant professor of practice of mechanical engineering and faculty sponsor for the project. “Future iterations could include sensors in the ear tag to monitor each cow’s health with skin temperature data.”
Project managers for the team are Nathan Husen of Bixby and Kaylee Kapche of Katy, Texas. Other team members are Kathryn Eugenio of Cypress, Texas, Anthony Fatigante of Tulsa, and Dean Knight of Tulsa.
On May 20-21, the UTulsa team will travel to the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Mountain View, California, for the next phase of the competition. The students will present to a panel of NASA and industry experts, with the winning team having the opportunity to intern at one of NASA’s aeronautics centers during 2025-26.