Mission-Based Project Teams

Anteater Baja Racing (ABR) is a student-led engineering team at the University of California, Irvine dedicated to designing, manufacturing, testing, and racing an off-road vehicle for the international Baja SAE collegiate competition. Our core goal is to give students the opportunity to solve real engineering problems while developing a vehicle that can withstand rocky terrain, maximize performance, and withstand consistent reliability throughout competition.

The team is made up of more than 35 undergraduate students from a variety of engineering backgrounds. Students are responsible for the vehicle's major systems and development, including the chassis, suspension, steering, brakes, powertrain, testing and operations. ABR takes their team through the complete engineering development process, from identifying problems and designing components to manufacturing, assembling, testing, and competing with the finished vehicle. This gives students hands-on experience with CAD, machining, welding, fabrication, vehicle dynamics, testing, and project management while requiring them to balance...

Anteater Combat Engineering (ACE) is a robotics organization dedicated to innovating in the field of combat robotics. Our lightweight and heavyweight teams compete in various competitions that are much like that BattleBots show you may remember on TV. 

We are a young project team started by a couple of UCI students who really loved making their own plastic BattleBots. Through passion and hard work, this grew from a couple of friends to a group of over 100 students working to make the best possible robots. 

We have two main groups of students, each with their own goal. Our lightweight teams challenge groups of students to build battlebots that do not exceed one pound in weight, entirely out of 3D printed plastic. This group focuses on teaching the engineering fundamentals to incoming collegiate students, Our heavyweight teams focus on iterating and innovating...

Anteater Electric Racing (AER) is an undergraduate design team at the University of California, Irvine that designs, builds, and tests an electric racecar for the Formula SAE Electric competition. Our team is dedicated to exploring the capabilities of electric vehicle technology and its potential to advance more sustainable transportation.

This project integrates mechanical, electrical, and software systems to develop a high-performance vehicle that meets rigorous competition rules and safety standards. Students contribute to major vehicle systems, including aerodynamics, chassis, battery, and powertrain, gaining experience in design, manufacturing, simulation, and testing.

The competition is multifaceted, requiring teams to balance acceleration, endurance, energy efficiency, weight, and cost alongside business and marketing strategy. Given the added complexity of high-voltage systems, electrical safety and reliability are central to the development process.

AER gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real engineering challenges while collaborating across...

Anteater Ride Engineering is a project where students design, manufacture, and test an attraction that is compliant with ASTM F24 standards , and compete against schools across the entire country in the Ride Engineering Competition. Anteater Ride Engineering is the only hands on engineering project on campus that works with themed entertainment and design.

Throughout the project, students receive feedback from industry professionals and test their engineering knowledges through creating unique ways to manufacture parts and test the attraction .The team submits documentation of the team structure, initial ride ideas, design reviews, engineering design decisions, outreach efforts, and service plans. At the end of the competition, Anteater Ride Engineering receives detailed feedback of each submittal and ways to improve next 

Anteater Ride Engineering was first established in Fall 2025 and competed in the 2025-2026 Ride Engineering Competition as its...

UCI Design Build Vertical Flight (DBVF) is a student-led engineering team that specializes in autonomous eVTOL aircrafts. 

Each year, we design, manufacture, and test to compete in the Vertical Flight Society DBVF competition in Maryland during April.

F1tenth strives to research Machine Learning approaches for 1/10th scaled autonomous racing with the goal of making the vehicle run as fast as possible through different navigation controls and vehicle engineering. The team was started in summer of 2024 and had since taken our methods to the RoboRacer competitions. 

Humans have achieved flight, yet birds and insects still surpass man-made aircraft in agility and control. The Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FWMAV) team seeks to uncover how nature achieves such mastery. By studying creatures like hummingbirds and dragonflies, engineers analyze the unsteady aerodynamics and nonlinear mechanisms that enable efficient, stable flight.

FWMAV’s small, agile, and hovering capabilities have applications in law enforcement, defense, and scientific research. The project investigates the physics behind flapping-wing flight to design innovative aerial systems.

Established in 2015 at UC Irvine, HyperXite is an undergraduate project team that participates in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. Our team is focused on researching and developing new technologies to revolutionize sustainable transportation. The Hyperloop concept is a proposed high-speed mode of transportation that uses a pod to transport passengers and cargo through vacuum tubes. This concept was developed in 2013 and described as a “5th mode of transportation”. At a top speed of 760 mph, passengers could travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 35 minutes. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Hyperloop could use up to 20% less energy per passenger-mile than air travel. HyperXite is fully immersed in the process of designing new technologies, helping advance both rapid and sustainable travel for the future. Most recently, HyperXite competed at the 2025 Canadian Hyperloop Global conference, earning 1st-place awards in Guidance System, Levitation, and Overall Presentation.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter at the University of California, Irvine is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting interest in all facets of transportation. Through hands-on projects, field trips, workshops, guest lectures, networking events and more, we provide ample opportunities for students to engage with the transportation industry beyond the classroom. 

Solar Car is a student-run, interdisciplinary project team and one of four racecar teams on campus. Comprised of 60 members of all engineering backgrounds, we bring together diverse skills and perspectives to tackle complex engineering challenges.

After competing with our first-ever vehicle, the SolEater, we continue to develop new vehicles and refine our designs to advance our project goals. We plan to participate annually in the Formula Sun Grand Prix, progress to the American Solar Challenge, and build a strong reputation both on campus and nationwide. 

Sustainability

In building our solar car, we aim to do more than just race—we strive to lead in the development of innovative, sustainable technology. As part of UC Irvine, ranked a Top 5 “Cool School” by Sierra Magazine for its commitment to sustainability, we take pride in pushing the boundaries of what clean...

UAV Forge is a multidisciplinary engineering design team at UC Irvine focused on the complete development cycle of autonomous aerial vehicles, including design, manufacturing, programming, integration, and flight testing. The team was founded in 2013 by UCI students inspired by the DARPA UAV competition, and since 2017 has competed annually in the international Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) competition. Today, UAV Forge brings together students across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering to develop unmanned aerial systems capable of completing complex search-and-rescue inspired missions such as autonomous waypoint navigation, object detection and localization, aerial mapping, and precision payload delivery.

While our goal is to excel in competition, UAV Forge's broader mission is to provide students with hands-on experience solving real-world engineering challenges, bridging the gap between academia and industry. Our members are responsible for the entire engineering lifecycle, from initial design and manufacturing to software development, integration, and...

The UCI CanSat team is a prominent representation of the University of California, Irvine's commitment to pushing the boundaries of student-led engineering projects. Comprised of a dedicated and dynamic group of students, the team participates in the International CanSat Competition each year to hone their engineering skills. This competition hosted by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) provides an opportunity for us to experience the entire development cycle of a complex engineering project – from conceptual design through integration and testing, to real-world operation and post-mission summary. It not only offers an avenue to apply theoretical knowledge but also propels UCI's engineering students into real-world scenarios that mimic the challenges faced by professionals in the industry. 

UCI’s Chem-E-Car team is a competition team that participates in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Western Regional Conference (WRC) each year in late April.

Chem-E-Car is itself an annual competition hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) where teams research, design, and fabricate an autonomous, shoebox-sized car powered and stopped by chemical reactions. Each car must travel a distance announced shortly before competition and stop as close to that distance as possible. Our team competes with two cars, each using a starting system to propel the vehicle and a stopping system to bring it to a stop. The cars also rely on mechanical and electrical systems to safely house the reactions, power the vehicle, and autonomously control its operation. This makes Chem-E-Car an interdisciplinary project where students must combine concepts from chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering into one...

About ChemE Cube at UCI

ChemE Cube is a national student competition hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), challenging students to design a modular, one-cubic-foot plant to solve global issues. Organized through the UC Irvine chapter of AIChE, our interdisciplinary engineering team designs the chemical process, builds the physical cube, and conducts market analysis to pitch the technology to mock investors. 

Challenge and Solution:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), global warming continues to accelerate climate change, with the U.S. alone releasing 6,343 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2022 . To tackle this, ChemE Cube at UCI is engineering a Direct Air Capture (DAC) and regeneration process to scrub carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, pairing innovative engineering with a viable commercial business model. 

Key Highlights:

• 7th Place Nationally (2025): Outperformed 50
...

UCI CubeSat is a student-led engineering team working to develop, build, test, and launch UCI’s first 2U CubeSat, AntSat01. Our interdisciplinary undergraduate team is organized across six subteams: Avionics, Communications, Operations, Power, Structures, and Systems. From modeling and simulation to hardware integration, testing, and debugging, students have direct ownership of the spacecraft development process and the opportunity to work with real satellite systems. Under the guidance of our advisors, Professors Shimane and Lee, AntSat01 serves as a platform for hands-on experience with spacecraft systems while supporting space research and development at UCI. Our mission also provides a foundation for continued research into phage therapy in microgravity in collaboration with the Whiteson Lab at UCI. By combining student engineering, interdisciplinary research, and real spaceflight systems, UCI CubeSat aims to expand undergraduate opportunities in spacecraft development, establish a foundation for future student-led missions, and contribute to the advancement of scalable space...

Who Are We:

The UCI Solar Airplane Team is a multidisciplinary group of approximately 25 undergraduate students dedicated to advancing sustainable aviation through innovation, research, and hands-on engineering. Our members come from a wide range of academic backgrounds, including Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the arts. Each year, our team designs, analyzes, manufactures, and tests a new solar-powered aircraft, building upon the knowledge and achievements of previous generations. Through collaboration and continuous improvement, we strive to maximize flight endurance and efficiency by integrating solar energy with advanced battery systems.

Our Purpose:

The UCI Solar Airplane Project aims to demonstrate the potential of solar energy as a practical and sustainable power source for aviation while inspiring broader adoption of renewable energy technologies. As the world continues to confront the challenges of climate change and increasing energy demands, innovative clean-energy...

Underwater Robotics at UCI is a student-run engineering organization specializing in autonomous underwater robotics. We plan to compete in the annual RoboSub competition with the help of our sponsors 

ZIMS is the largest club within the ZOTBotics Network and serves as UCI's premiere gateway into robotics and engineering. Since ZOTBotics was founded in 2017, it has grown into a community of over 1,000 members spanning 10+ majors. Unlike most technical organizations at UCI, ZIMS requires no application, interviews, or prior experience.

Beginning in Fall 2026, ZIMS will feature 3 levels of projects: the Hexapod, 5-axis Robot Arm, and Self-Leveling Anteater Project (SLAP).

ZIMS project members automatically gain access to our fully student-run makerspace at the Engineering and Computing Trailers (ECT) room 120, which includes access to over twenty-five 3D printers and all of the power tools necessary to complete any engineering project, including any ZIMS or personal/team projects. This year, we're implementing an access card system to facilitate members' usage of the makerspace. Project members get their own access cards for...