Princeton Student Breaks Guinness World Record For Quadcopter

PRINCETON, NJ — Zechen (Peter) Wei of Princeton broke the Guiness world speed record for the fastest quadcopter ascent to 100 meters, with a record time of 2.732 seconds.

Wei a senior at Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science (PRISMS) had always had a passion for drones.

When he first came to the school as a freshman he expressed a strong interest in creating drones, said Dr. Yang Yang, PRISMS director of admissions.

Wei saw the record set in 2016 by German engineer, Dirk Brunner, who had produced a quadcopter that was able to ascend 100 meters in 3.871 seconds, which earned the title of "Fastest 100m ascent by a quadcopter" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Wei decided to take on the task of beating the record as part of his two-year research program at PRISMS with his research mentor, Adam Kemp.

"He did calculations as per physics and math and saw that this speed can be faster," Yang said. "Over one and half years he worked to improve the function of the quadcopter."

Wei produced countless 3D CAD models, conducted simulations and finite element analysis on its theoretical performance, and eventually constructed an optimized prototype.

"When I first came to PRISMS as a freshman, I never thought of being able to go this far," said Wei. "I am excited about hands-on creativity. Turning what’s in my head into reality in my hands always feels like magic. In the past few years at PRISMS, I have stayed curious and have done a lot of innovative engineering projects. When thinking about research projects, my instructor, Mr. Kemp, encouraged me to challenge the world record. After a lot of hard work with simulations and trial-and-error, I finally achieved my goal."

Wei broke the record on Oct. 25.

PRISMS was founded in 2013 and is a non-profit, co-educational STEM-focused school for grades 9 to 12. For more information visit prismsus.org.

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