On the same day the university hosted a conference called “Welcome to the Drone Age,” BSU officials announced that this summer two new UAV certificate programs would be offered on campus.
The university has been working with officials from the Massachusetts UAV Association and other experts in the field to develop certification programs for safe recreational usage.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones as they are more commonly known, will soon be ubiquitous in the skies, used for purposes ranging from recreation, business, public safety and academics. To address the growing use of these unmanned systems, the College of Continuing Studies at BSU plans to announce the launch of two drone training programs later this year. The first program will educate recreational flyers on the “know before you fly” safety guidelines and provide practical flight training. The second program will provide the basic preparation for the commercial use of drones. The three-part course will combine a seminar on meeting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements, a pre-flight ground school, and a flight school.
A large crowd filled the auditorium of the DMF Science and Mathematics Center on Friday for a jam-packed event dedicated to the safe use of UAVs and to get a glimpse of what the future holds.
Opening the conference, Provost Barbara Feldman said drones were once the things of science fiction. “Now they’re here,” she said.
Indeed, moments later, the keynote speaker for the event, Frank Serna, director of strategic initiatives at Draper Labs, was holding a black, winged UAV at the front of the auditorium.
“We’re on the cusp of major changes,” he said, in society, technology, business and other areas.
Mr. Serna’s talk set the stage for the day’s activities, which included workshops titled, “Know Before You Fly,” “Drones on Campus,” and “Drone Apps.” Stephen K. Brown of the Federal Aviation Administration spoke later in the day. Mr. Serna also spoke to the growth of the UAV industry, which has expanded exponentially in recent years. For comparison’s sake, he cited the fact that there are upwards of 80,000 airline flights in the U.S. daily, and in recent years 2 million UAVs have been sold in this country.
The commercial possibilities of UAVs include the delivery of goods; agricultural uses; and “eye in the sky” type of activities, such as public safety, utilities monitoring, imaging and surveillance, to name just a few. These uses will propel the market to double its current size. That size is already estimable, and projections are that between last year and 2025 the economic impact will reach $82 billion for the decade.
All this does not come without concerns, and Mr. Serna touched on these. They included liability issues, the endurance of UAV’s (i.e. the battery power to keep one in the air), and the need for technology to keep UAVs on track and avoid collisions with each other or buildings, power lines, planes etc.
The UAV industry is certainly looking up. That was the only conclusion one could come away with from the presentation.
“The big prize is in the new offerings that we can only guess at now,” Mr. Serna said. (Story and speaker photos by John Winters, University News & Media; all other photos by George Rizer.)
