UVU seniors unveiled a ‘tug’ that could help planes get to the gate without burning precious fuel.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Valley University students test a new prototype electric-powered, autonomous aircraft tug, during a demo at Provo Airport on Friday, April 12, 2024. The tug would cut down on airplanes needing to start their engines early by moving them around at busy airports and reducing emissions and jet fuel costs.
| April 13, 2024, 1:43 p.m.
Provo • Their four-wheeled contraption had worked perfectly before reporters showed up, Utah Valley University students promised, as they tinkered with it at the Provo Airport.
The creation, a welded frame encased in two wooden compartments roughly the size of coffee tables and powered by two electric engines, was supposed to tow the Diamond DA40 XLT — a single-engine prop plane weighing around 2,500 pounds — hitched to it.
Advertisement
It worked for a minute during its public debut Friday, before a broken sprocket — the metal wheel over which engine chains run — immobilized the machine for the rest of the day. But it would likely be an easy fix, UVU professor and project mentor Brett Stone said, and what is engineering if not a series of problems to solve?
Someone else’s problem, the students chimed in — this is likely as far as they’ll take this project before handing it off to the next capstone class — but a solvable one. And if it works, this student-led invention could revolutionize the airport taxiing process.
This model was just the prototype, a culmination of a school year’s worth of work from UVU engineering and computer science seniors. When it works — which it had just this morning, students repeated — it will be able to tow airplanes to and from their gates, controlled remotely by airport ground crews, pilots and its own autonomous driving abilities.
The traditional taxiing process, Stone said, is noisy, dangerous and wasteful. It requires planes to burn precious fuel and asks tarmac employees to come dangerously close to the spinning blades of aircraft engines.
“Jet engines are meant to be at 30,000 feet,” Stone said. “They’re not meant to push things around on the ground. And so, the way engineers think, I guess, I was like, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’”
Advertisement
The goal is to build a “tug,” as the contraption is called, robust enough to taxi commercial jets — and bring it to market.
Aircraft tugs aren’t new — but fully electric, remote-controlled ones with the capacity to tow a commercial jet could be the industry’s next frontier. There’s a patent application pending for this specific model, Stone said, and future senior capstone classes will help scale it for commercial use. A commercial product could be ready in the next two years, Stone said.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Valley University computer science student Cache Fulton uses a controller to pilot an autonomous, electric-powered aircraft tug during a demo at Provo Airport on Friday, April 12, 2024. The tug would cut down on airplanes needing to start their engines early by moving them around at busy airports and reducing emissions and jet fuel costs.
“It’d be really cool to see it progress, to see it reach the full-size Boeing airline capacity,” said UVU graduating senior Kolby Hargett. “I think another year from now, [future students] can get started scaling it into something larger, now that the idea’s here and a lot of the ground work’s done.”
This was a first-of-its-kind collaboration between graduating seniors in UVU’s engineering and computer science departments. Engineers, like Ammon Traden, worked on the design and the mechanics. Computer scientists, like Cache Fulton and Riley Pinkham, figured out the software. Their combined skillset was what it took to turn Stone’s vision into a real, operable product.
Advertisement
“We were blessed that Kolby knows so much about electricity,” Traden said. “He helped us so much with this.”
It’s also the most ambitious capstone project UVU engineering students have undertaken, said professor and mentor Matt Jensen — and the most practical. Students will enter the job market with real-world experience and a demonstrable, physical product they can say they built from the ground up.
“While it’s not perfect, and obviously it did have its challenges today, I think just recognizing … that they’re about to graduate and go into the industry, I feel very confident that they’ll be good engineers.”
And one day in the near future, the students imagine, they might get to sit on a plane being towed by something they helped create.
“Next, we’re going to come for the plane,” Fulton said.
Advertisement
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Valley University students and professor Matt Jensen (center) troubleshoot a sprocket failure on a new prototype electric-powered, autonomous aircraft tug, during a demo at Provo Airport on Friday, April 12, 2024. The tug would cut down on airplanes needing to start their engines early by moving them around at busy airports and reducing emissions and jet fuel costs.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainabilityfor The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
Today I’ll be chronicling the best performances of the 2024 calendar year from our Golden State Warriors. Although the Dubs didn’t make the playoffs during the 2023-2024 season and have been pretty mid to finish the year, there have been plenty of fantastic individual performances to enjoy and give Dub Nation hope for the future.
One such performance came from Buddy HIeld in a win against the Utah Jazz. Check out the vid!
Goldblooded eyes on Splash Buddy
Buddy Hield is the kind of player who makes offenses hum, and his tantalizing skills are built on a foundation of one elite trait: shooting. And not just your run-of-the-mill, standstill shooting—Hield is a flamethrower, a guy who can bury threes in a dizzying variety of ways. Whether it’s coming off a screen, spotting up, or pulling up in transition, Hield is always a threat to light it up from anywhere on the court. His stroke is effortless, his confidence unshakable, and his range downright ridiculous. For any team in need of offensive firepower, Hield’s skill set is like plugging a cheat code into your offense.
Advertisement
What makes Hield so lethal is the speed at which he operates. He’s not just a shooter—he’s a mover. He sprints off screens with precision, keeping defenders glued to his hip and bending defenses as they scramble to keep up. His ability to relocate and find open pockets of space is elite, and he doesn’t need much time or airspace to get his shot off. That constant motion creates gravity, and Hield’s presence alone can open up driving lanes for his teammates or force defenses into mistakes.
But don’t box Hield in as just a three-point specialist. He’s also got a sneaky knack for putting the ball on the floor and attacking closeouts. While his handle isn’t flashy, it’s effective enough to punish overzealous defenders who fly by him on the perimeter. And once he’s inside the arc, Hield can pull up for a smooth mid-range jumper or finish with a floater. He’s a solid secondary creator, capable of keeping the offense flowing when plays break down.
Defensively, Hield’s game doesn’t shine as brightly, but he’s no slouch. He competes, plays within the scheme, and uses his strength and quickness to hold his own against most matchups. While he may never be a lockdown defender, his offensive impact more than compensates for any shortcomings on that end.
Ultimately, Buddy Hield’s skill set is tailor-made for a modern NBA offense. He’s a sniper with elite off-ball movement, a player who thrives in space and elevates those around him. Plug him into a system with ball movement and shooting, and he becomes a weapon of mass destruction—someone who can swing games with his scoring bursts and keep defenses in constant panic mode. In Buddy Hield, you get a player who embodies the art of shooting in its purest, most tantalizing form.
The 2024 season for the University of Utah football team started out with high expectations and much promise.
Through one-and-a-half games, the Utes looked like a team capable of reaching their preseason goal of winning the Big 12 championship, but injuries to starting quarterback Cam Rising derailed the season.
Utah’s offense foundered for the majority of the season as the Utes lost seven consecutive games for the first time in the Kyle Whittingham era, finishing with a 5-7 record.
Here are 10 moments that defined Utah’s 2024 season:
Advertisement
Preseason expectations set the stage: Utah wasn’t shy about its expectations for the season — to win the Big 12 Conference and make its first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff. With quarterback Cam Rising, who had led the Utes to back-to-back Pac-12 championships in his last two healthy seasons, returning, the addition of receiver Dorian Singer and the return of tight end Brant Kuithe, the offense appeared set. The defense also returned a lot of its contributors from the previous season.
Utah was voted No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll, setting up high expectations, which the team itself shared.
Utah interim OC Mike Bajakian stands on the sidelines, with headset, as Utah plays Southern Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Thursday, August 29, 2024. The Utes did what expected in the opener, defeating Southern Utah 49-0 to start the season. | Eli Rehmer, Utah Athletics
A 2-0 start … but trouble arises: Utah was always going to run away from Southern Utah, but the way the season started had Ute fans dreaming about what could be. In a 49-0 season-opening win, Rising played for the first time since the 2023 Rose Bowl and threw for 254 yards and five touchdowns in one half.
Next week against Baylor, it was the same story. Utah raced out to a 23-0 lead and Rising threw two first-quarter touchdown passes, but everything came to a screeching halt when Rising was pushed into a Gatorade cooler.
Rising would suffer a finger injury that would keep him out for the next three contests.
Advertisement
Utah Utes quarterback Cameron Rising is driven out of bounds by Baylor Bears defensive lineman Treven Ma’ae (9) as Utah and Baylor play at Rice-Eccles stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 7, 2024. Rising injured his finger on the play, which sidelined him for a number of games. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Isaac Wilson helps Utah to a 4-0 start: It wasn’t the situation that Utah envisioned for Isaac Wilson in his true freshman year. Wilson won the backup quarterback job over Brandon Rose and Sam Huard, but the plan, ideally, was for the Deseret News Mr. Football winner to learn from Rising and only play in mop-up situations.
Wilson was thrust into action after Rising’s injury and helped lead the Utes to a 4-0 start, beating Utah State on the road and then traveling to Stillwater for a top-15 matchup against Oklahoma State.
Of course, both the Utes and Cowboys ended the season toward the bottom of Big 12’s worst standings, but at the time, it was a monumental matchup, and though he made some mistakes, Wilson helped guide Utah to its first Big 12 win, with 207 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception, plus 41 rushing yards.
Utah quarterback Isaac Wilson (11) runs the ball towards Oklahoma State safety Kendal Daniels (5) Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Stillwater, Okla. | Mitch Alcala
A season-ending injury for Rising as Utah’s Big 12 dreams go up in dust in the desert: After weeks of game-time decisions surrounding Rising and his ability to play, the senior quarterback returned to the field in a crucial game at Arizona State.
Utah lost 23-10 to Arizona the week before, and a second Big 12 loss would severely hurt any title prospects.
Rising’s return went anything but as expected. He completed just 16 of 37 passes for 209 yards and threw three interceptions. His finger injury looked to be bothering him, and early on in the game, he suffered a lower-body injury. Though he played through it, it clearly limited him, and turned out to be a season-ending injury.
Just like that, Rising’s season was done early and so, too, was the Utes’.
Advertisement
Utah quarterback Cameron Rising looks to throw against Arizona State, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Tempe, Ariz. Rising suffered a lower-body injury that would sideline him for the remainder of the season. | Rick Scuteri, Associated Press
Andy Ludwig resigns: Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig returned to Utah in 2019 and helped the Utes to some of their most impressive offensive performances, including two Pac-12 championships and a revitalization of the passing game.
It felt like Ludwig was going to stay on at Utah until Kyle Whittingham retired, but after a 13-7 loss to TCU — Utah’s third defeat in a row and third time in as many games that the offense failed to score more than 19 points — that changed.
Ludwig resigned after six years in his second as Utah’s offensive coordinator and Mike Bajakian was named the interim offensive coordinator.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Andy Ludwig watches players during warmups as Utah and Baylor prepare to play at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. After three straight defeats in which the Utes’ offense struggled, Ludwig announced his decision to step down. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Season hits a low point in Houston: After losing three straight games, it felt like Utah’s game at Houston was a make-or-break moment for the program. Yes, the Utes were all but out of the Big 12 title race with three early conference losses, but could still get the season back on track with a winning streak.
Houston seemed like it could be a get-right game for the Utes.
For the most part, Utah’s defense did its job, limiting Houston to 17 points, but the Utes only mustered 14 points in a fourth-straight loss.
Wilson was benched in the third quarter, and Brandon Rose got his first real action of his career, but couldn’t lead Utah to a victory against the 2-5 Cougars.
Advertisement
Houston wide receiver Joseph Manjack IV, left, breaks ae tackle-attempt by Utah cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, right, to score on a pass play during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Houston. | Michael Wyke
Brandon Rose starts against BYU, but Utes lose heartbreaker to Cougars: The first conference rivalry game in over a decade featured two teams on polar opposite tracks.
BYU entered the contest with a No. 9 ranking and a perfect 8-0 record, while Utah was reeling after losing four straight.
Looking to spark offensive change, Rose started, and the offense found life for the first time in weeks. Utah shocked BYU, getting out to a 21-10 halftime lead behind Rose’s 87 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, plus 45 rushing yards.
Shortly before halftime, Rose suffered a Lisfranc injury, and while he finished the rest of the game, he wasn’t the same. Utah went run-heavy with Rose’s injury and didn’t score a single point the rest of the way. BYU drew within three, but the Cougars were backed up toward their own end zone, facing fourth-and-10 at the nine-yard line with 1:35 left.
Utah appeared to have won the game by sacking quarterback Jake Retzlaff, but cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn was flagged for a holding call against a BYU receiver, resulting in an automatic first down. The Cougars drove down the field to set up a 44-yard field goal make by Will Ferrin and escape Salt Lake City with a 22-21 win.
Following the game, Rose and tight end Brant Kuithe ruled out for the season, joining an extensive list for the second consecutive season. Rising, Wilson, quarterback Sam Huard, receiver Money Parks, cornerback Kenan Johnson, running back Anthony Woods, linebacker Levani Damuni and offensive guard Michael Mokofisi were among the players that suffered season-ending injuries in 2024.
Advertisement
BYU place kicker Will Ferrin (44) kicks and makes a field goal to put the Cougars ahead 22-21 with seconds left on the clock during a game between the University of Utah Utes and the Brigham Young University Cougars held at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City early on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
Lander Barton extends Utah’s pick-six streak: As Utah continued on its seven-game skid, one of the few areas of interest was if the team could extend its 20-season pick-six streak.
Against Iowa State, Utah did just that, extending its streak of consecutive seasons with an interception return for a touchdown to an NCAA-record 21 years.
In the second quarter of Utah’s 31-28 loss to No. 22 Iowa State, Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht’s pass was behind Jaylin Noel and went off the receiver’s hands and into the hands of Barton at the Utah 13-yard line.
Barton broke a tackle from Becht and got a few key blocks, including from Vaughn, for an 87-yard pick-six.
Utah Utes linebacker Lander Barton (8) races for the end zone for a pick-six during Utah’s game against Iowa State at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. The score extended Utah’s NCAA record for consecutive games with a pick-six. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
Defense holds up its end of the bargain for the majority of the season: Sure, there were a few things to nitpick about Utah’s defensive performance in 2024. Utah didn’t tally as many sacks as we’ve been accustomed to seeing, and had a few times where they could have sealed the game with a stop and didn’t.
But for the most part, it was another good year for Morgan Scalley’s unit. The defense didn’t get much help from the offense, but still allowed only 20.7 points per game (No. 28 in the nation) and 329.7 yards per game (No. 30) in another good defensive season.
The defense was the reason why Utah was in most every game it played in 2024, even if it didn’t translate into wins.
Advertisement
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley talks with players in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. While the offense struggled in 2024, Scalley’s defense was solid once again. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Micah Bernard surpasses 1,000 rushing yards: The individual triumph of the season was by running back Micah Bernard, who finally got his shot at the lead running back role after being with the program since 2019. A 1,000-yard season has always been a goal of Bernard’s, and he checked it off the list in his final season.
Bernard rushed for 1,009 yards in 2024, becoming the 17th Ute to do so in a season. He also had 100-plus-yard performances in four games this year.
Utah Utes running back Micah Bernard (2) runs the ball during an NCAA football game between the University of Utah Utes and the Iowa State University Cyclones held at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
Utah Hockey Club (16-14-6, in the Central Division) vs. Edmonton Oilers (21-12-3, in the Pacific Division)
Edmonton, Alberta; Tuesday, 9 p.m. EST
Advertisement
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Oilers -240, Utah Hockey Club +195; over/under is 6.5
BOTTOM LINE: The Utah Hockey Club come into the matchup with the Edmonton Oilers as losers of four games in a row.
Edmonton has a 21-12-3 record overall and a 12-7-1 record in home games. The Oilers have an 8-2-3 record in one-goal games.
Utah has a 16-14-6 record overall and an 11-7-2 record in road games. The Utah Hockey Club rank fourth in league play with 155 total penalties (averaging 4.3 per game).
Tuesday’s game is the second meeting between these teams this season. The Oilers won the last matchup 4-3 in overtime.
Advertisement
TOP PERFORMERS: Zach Hyman has scored 13 goals with eight assists for the Oilers. Leon Draisaitl has seven goals and 14 assists over the past 10 games.
Clayton Keller has 13 goals and 24 assists for the Utah Hockey Club. Dylan Guenther has scored six goals with four assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Oilers: 7-2-1, averaging 3.9 goals, 6.8 assists, 2.5 penalties and 5.8 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game.
Utah Hockey Club: 5-3-2, averaging three goals, 5.4 assists, 3.6 penalties and 7.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game.
INJURIES: Oilers: None listed.
Advertisement
Utah Hockey Club: None listed.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25672934/Metaphor_Key_Art_Horizontal.png "There’s a reason Metaphor: ReFantanzio’s battle music sounds as cool as it does")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24982514/Quest_3_dock.jpg "Meta’s ‘software update issue’ has been breaking Quest headsets for weeks")
