Gavin Gardner, a Michigan State University engineering student, took part twice in NASA's University Student Research Challenge (USRC), a grant initiative for college teams working on aeronautical research goals. The NASA account published on Oct. 28, 2026, says Gardner found the financial side of the work harder than the engineering, from building budgets to crowdfunding outreach. He traces his later career in part to those lessons.

In 2021, Gardner joined a USRC project called Aerial Intra-city Delivery Electric Drones (AIDED), which explored a cargo drone that could dock on a city bus, charge and then complete a delivery. The team built and flew a full-scale drone but decided against a commercial venture, citing regulations around flying over people in dense cities. A second USRC award in 2023, the Laser Energized Aerial Drone System, focused on transferring power to a drone in flight by laser and led to a prototype flight.

As his spring 2025 master's graduation approached, Gardner began work in late 2024 to co-found AG3 Labs with his brother and other USRC alumni. An initial U.S. Army award led to more contracts, the article says, and the company now builds thousands of drones each month for military training and counter-drone testing.