6/27/2025
Anubhav Bose, Mudith Witharamalage and Omkar Kulkarni have won first place in a prestigious international design competition for electric aircraft: the 2025 ITEC+EATS Student Design Challenge. The ECE student team created an innovative design for a fully electric regional aircraft’s power distribution system.
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When it comes to electrified transportation, the sky’s the limit for three electrical and computer engineering students at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Anubhav Bose, Mudith Witharamalage and Omkar Kulkarni have won first place in a prestigious international design competition for electric aircraft: the 2025 ITEC+EATS Student Design Challenge. The ECE student team created an innovative design for a fully electric regional aircraft’s power distribution system.
The competition, sponsored by Elysian Aircraft and hosted by the IEEE/AIAA Transportation Electrification Conference and Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, challenged students to design the electrical backbone for a 90-passenger electric airplane.
The task was no small feat. The students had to create a high-voltage power distribution system that could transmit electricity from batteries to eight propellers while also incorporating a backup fuel-powered generator. Their design needed to meet strict aviation safety standards while considering everything from thermal regulation to different voltage requirements throughout the aircraft.
“We had to read a lot of literature in a variety of disciplines to piece together an accurate, safe, and feasible design,” Omkar explains. The biggest challenge was choosing the optimal network voltage – high enough to efficiently power the aircraft while keeping cable weight to a minimum.
Each team member brought unique expertise to the project. Mudith brought together the team, taking on the role of planner and team leader. He also handled preliminary analysis, motor calculations, and thermal management. Omkar focused on the power electronics design, from batteries to motors. He tackled voltage sensitivity, battery selection and component placement. And as the most senior member, Anubhav brought his prior experience in electric aircraft design from his projects and internships. He acted as a mentor and focused on the high-voltage safety considerations and thermal management.
The winning design features several groundbreaking elements. The team chose a lithium-air split battery system with an energy density of 500 watt-hours per kilogram – technology they predict will be available by 2035. They also chose an operating voltage of ±3000 volts DC, significantly higher than typical aircraft designs but necessary for efficient power transmission.
Their design included careful consideration of cable materials, selecting lightweight aluminum conductors and polypropylene insulation with aluminum oxide filler for durability and a relatively environmentally friendly manufacturing process.
The team already sees opportunities for further innovation. Omkar comments: “There is so much more we could have explored further. We were consciously making tradeoffs between practicality and novel innovations.” For example, superconducting machines are a potential game-changer for future electric aircraft, but the cryogenic cooling requirements make the technology challenging to implement today. As it stands, this award-winning design offers a glimpse of what might soon be possible for electric aviation.