About

Who we are

70+ students at NC State who want to work on national security problems.

The National Defense Society at NC State is a student chapter built for people who want to work on national security problems — not just read about them. We were founded in 2026 and have grown to 70+ members across the College of Engineering and well beyond it.

Week to week, that means bringing in people who actually do the work, building things with our own hands, and getting members in front of the companies and labs that hire them. We run speaker events with engineers and operators from industry, stand up small project teams, take trips to facilities and conferences, and keep a social calendar that makes the rest of it worth showing up for.

You do not need a clearance, a technical background, or a defense-adjacent résumé to join. Our roster runs from aerospace and nuclear engineers to political science, finance, and philosophy majors. If the work interests you, that is the entire prerequisite.

Week to week

What members actually do

Speaker events

Engineers, operators, and program leads from industry and government, on campus and on the record.

Build projects

Small teams tackling hardware and software problems with real constraints and real deadlines.

Trips

Visits to facilities, labs, and conferences where the work actually happens.

Socials

The part that turns a mailing list into a group of people who know each other.

Majors represented

Engineers, and everyone else

Engineering makes up most of the roster, but membership is open to every college at NC State.

Engineering and computing

MechanicalAerospaceElectricalComputer EngineeringComputer ScienceNuclearMaterials ScienceBiomedicalChemicalIndustrial

Everything else

BiologyPolitical ScienceFinanceBusinessPhilosophy

What we build

Projects

Not a reading group. Members ship hardware with real constraints, real deadlines, and in this case real funding.

Funded through NASA's USRC program

REACHR

A 13-foot hybrid UAS for hurricane search, supply delivery, and emergency connectivity.

Abhinav Indukuri, Akhil Surapaneni, and John Richards spent the last year on REACHR alongside project lead Tobias Hullette: a large-scale UAS that locates and supplies victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters, and backs up first responders running search and rescue where flooding has cut the region off.

Wingspan: 13 feet
Primary mission: Search, supply, and rescue
Target environment: Flooded disaster zones
Status: Final stage development

Team — Tobias Hullette (project lead), Abhinav Indukuri, Akhil Surapaneni, John Richards, and Tushar Abraham. Faculty advisor: Dr. Felix Ewere.

“Working on REACHR was a great opportunity for me, letting me apply the skills I learned in the classroom onto something tangible, and is aimed toward saving lives.”
Abhinav Indukuri, Vice-President

Built by Seaborne Systems

MOSAIC

A four-foot uncrewed surface vessel that launches and recovers its own drone.

An uncrewed surface vessel for offshore infrastructure inspection and maritime defence. MOSAIC carries a small UAV that launches and lands on her autonomously, guided by AprilTags and custom recovery hardware. Four feet long, and still built for big seas.

Length: 4 feet
Cruise speed: Up to 12 knots
Payload: Autonomous UAV, AprilTag recovery
Primary mission: Inspection and maritime defence

Team — Robert Chase, Kesler Atkinson, and John Richards.

Full project write-up

PICO TALON

The classic Talon airframe, miniaturised and fully 3D printable.

A traditional pusher-prop aircraft with fixed wings and a V-tail, shrunk down from the classic Talon airframe. It flies on INAV/ArduPilot, and the whole thing prints on a Bambu A1 — which makes it the rare airframe a member can build from a spool of filament rather than a purchase order.

Autopilot: INAV / ArduPilot
Manufacture: Fully 3D printed
Configuration: Pusher prop, fixed wing, V-tail
Printer: Bambu A1

Team — John Richards.