CREATE-X is a Georgia Tech initiative to instill entrepreneurial confidence in students and empower them to launch successful startups. The broader goal of this initiative is to provide the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences that will give Georgia Tech graduates the confidence to create their own future and confidently pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
As part of the CREATE-X initiative, Prof. Lu Gan served as the faculty mentor for a Spring 2025 team focused on developing an autonomous drone system. Led by Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student Heying Zhang, the team comprised 13 M.S. and undergraduate students from across Colleges and Schools at Georgia Tech. Throughout the semester, the team held weekly meetings with Prof. Lu Gan on Mondays for progress updates, project planning, and Q&A sessions. Dedicated workshops on Fridays were focused on hardware assembly and software testing.
The team was responsible for the full development cycle of the autonomous drone system — from procuring hardware components and sensors, assembling the platform, and developing the software, to running simulations and conducting final outdoor flight tests. By the end of the semester, they successfully achieved GPS-enabled waypoint autonomous flight in an outdoor environment. As the next step, the team plans to advance toward vision-based autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments.
This CREATE-X experience highlights the value of hands-on, interdisciplinary collaboration at Georgia Tech. By bringing together students from diverse academic backgrounds to address real-world challenges, the program fosters a culture of innovation that extends beyond the classroom. Through this project, students gained technical expertise, cultivated entrepreneurial thinking, and developed the confidence to create, lead, and pursue impactful ideas. Initiatives like this catalyze interdisciplinary research and empower the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs at Georgia Tech.