Air force

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Ever wish your favorite snack would just fall out of the sky and land on your front door? Yale students Cat Orman ’22 and Jason Lu ’20, and Jack Luo of McGill University, are on it. Kiki Air, the trio’s new drone delivery service, began life as Lu’s final project in a computer science class taught by Brad Rosen. With permission from the Yale administration to run a limited trial on campus, Orman, Lu, and Luo developed an app that allowed students to purchase items to be delivered by drone. The company began testing in February. After the pandemic closed the campus, they started a new trial run, serving people sheltering in place in New Haven; they offer food from local restaurants and essentials like toilet paper and antiseptic wipes. “Far and away our most popular item is the everything bagel from Olmo on Whitney,” says Orman. They plan to keep operating in Connecticut neighborhoods over the short term. Once schools reopen, they hope to bring Kiki back to Yale—and potentially to other college campuses.