Five years ago, Gavin Gardner was a Michigan State University engineering student researching next-generation drone technology on a NASA grant. He expected the research to be demanding. What he did not expect was that navigating the financial side of the work would prove even more challenging. Because nothing says "next-generation drone technology" quite like discovering that spreadsheets are the real final boss.
Gardner was used to leading fellow students in a lab setting, but he and his team were completely new to creating budgets, handling large sums of money, and promoting their work for crowdfunding. It turns out that "we built a cool drone" is not, in fact, a pitch deck.
That's why demonstrating both engineering and entrepreneurship skills are major tentpoles of NASA's University Student Research Challenge (USRC), an initiative that provides grants to teams of college students interested in helping the agency realize its aeronautical research goals. In other words, NASA would like students to build the future and also explain it to people without using the word "nerdy."
"Half the battle is building your product," Gardner said recently. "The other half is selling the product in a way that everyone else can understand what you're doing and not talking in nerdy, engineering ways." A lesson that, frankly, many fully grown adults in the tech industry have yet to learn.
Gardner and his Michigan State USRC alumni teammates are still using those lessons today, as aerospace developers. In 2024, they founded their own company, AG3 Labs, which specializes in drones for military training exercises. So the trajectory went: student research grant, startup, defense contracts. Very on-brand for the drone economy.
"I don't think I would discredit our technical expertise in getting us to where we are today, but I know that USRC was a booster that really amplified our trajectory at such a young age," Gardner said.
NASA USRC manager Steven Holz said Gardner's experience shows what students can accomplish when they receive both a grant and guidance, enabling a future workforce and contributing to the aviation industry. A novel concept: give young people money and advice, and they do things.
"We are proud to see the success of USRC alumni," Holz said. "We hope that every team that participates in the program sees, like Gavin, how they can grow technically, entrepreneurially, and use the opportunity as a launchpad for their own innovative careers."
Gardner's path to running his own company began with a middle school age trip to Space Camp, where he began realizing that he wanted to be an engineer. The engineering bug also bit his brother, Gryson Gardner, and the two of them would often be found in their Michigan garage tinkering with various machinery, including drones and electronic kits. A classic origin story: two brothers, one garage, and an alarming number of small flying objects.
When Gardner arrived at Michigan State, he looked for extracurricular groups and found one dedicated to the increasingly popular hobby of drones. He gained hands-on, practical experience in how drones are made and operated. Important skills, especially for someone who would eventually build thousands of them a month.
In 2021, Gardner received an email from a friend who told him they had just won a USRC grant from NASA for an activity called Aerial Intra-city Delivery Electric Drones (AIDED), and they needed help building a new drone. Because nothing says "I have my life together" like an email that begins with "we won a NASA grant, want in?"
"We had this idea that instead of flying through the whole city, why can't a drone just hitchhike a ride on a city bus like everyone else does?" Gardner said. A genuinely delightful concept that raises the question: do drones also get annoyed when the bus is late?
The concept was for a cargo-carrying drone to take off, dock on top of public transportation such as a bus, charge its batteries while riding along, and then take off for its final leg of the delivery. The team built and flew a full-scale drone to prove the concept but decided against pursuing a commercial venture.
"The commercial drone market kind of scared us a little bit with the large number of regulations that go into operating such a novel idea like this with flying over people in a dense city," Gardner said. A rare and admirable admission: they looked at the regulatory landscape and said, "actually, no."
But the team's demonstration of technical prowess and confidence led to a second USRC award from NASA in 2023 - the Laser Energized Aerial Drone System (LEADS), which focused on using a laser to transfer power directly to a drone in flight. Because if you're going to do a sequel, you might as well involve lasers.
While working on LEADS, which led to flying a prototype, Gardner's network of contacts within the drone community expanded to include NASA personnel at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, who made him aware of internship opportunities, which he applied for and was accepted while in graduate school. Networking: it works, even when it's just people at NASA telling you about a job.
As his graduation in the spring of 2025 with a master's degree approached, Gardner took the initial steps in late 2024 to co-found with his brother and other USRC alumni AG3 Labs after a friend suggested the military could use low-cost drones to test effective counter drone systems. An initial award from the U.S. Army led to more contracts, allowing the company to expand and ramp up its operations, where today their production capability enables thousands of drones to be built each month. So the garage hobby became a defense contractor. As one does.
Gardner credits his experience with USRC, especially when it came to learning more about the business side of running a technical operation, with helping create the opportunities for success he and his team are experiencing today. The lesson, apparently: teach an engineer to budget, and they'll build drones for the Army. Or something like that.
Jim Banke is a veteran aviation and aerospace communicator with more than 40 years of experience as a writer, producer, consultant, and project manager based at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He is part of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications Team and Senior Writer for the Aeronautics Division within the Research Technology Mission Directorate. In 2007 he was recognized with a Distinguished Public Service Medal, NASA's highest honor for a non-government employee.