Auburn University to Offer Course on Drones
[gtxvideo vid=”t65RyVqZ” playlist=”” pid=”XiOflQdH” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/t65RyVqZ.jpg” vtitle=”Drone classes”]
Auburn received the nation’s first FAA approval to operate an unmanned aircraft systems flight school.
That means – students will be using and learning about drones. This morning, reps from the university demonstrated how drones work for our cameras.
Auburn university is teaching students, faculty and the general public about drones. This is a first for a university and Auburn reps say this emerging technology is the future.
Want to learn how to use drones? You’ll soon be able to at Auburn University.
“It’s unbelievable,” said sophomore Phillip Settlemyer. “Day by day, people are finding new avenues and niches to use a drone for.”
Auburn got the green light from the FAA to offer a course on the camera-equipped unmanned aircraft. Settlemyer believes the license will help draw more students to the university’s aviation program.
“There’s a couple of schools out there and even programs that can fly right now but they’re all either in a cage or tethered and we’re the first school that can fly outside, as you can see, untethered.”
Bill Hutto is the Director of the Auburn University Regional Airport and Aviation Center. He said the course will also appeal to students in other fields.
“Someone in building science, someone in engineering, someone in agriculture, someone in aviation, someone in journalism…can all get these skills.”
Auburn officials believe one of the immediate uses for drones in Alabama will be through precision agriculture.
“We can process that image and realize that a certain part of the field may have a nutrient deficiency or a water deficiency or a disease that’s developing,” said Steve Taylor, Department Head of Biosystems Engineering.
Congressman Mike Rogers, who serves on both the agriculture committee and homeland security committee in Washington was invited to the demonstration. He said he believes drones can be another tool to help fight illegal immigration.
“This is one of those things that if our border patrol agents on the southwest border or the northern border have indications that somebody’s coming across that’s illegal, one of these can be put up and will be very helpful in determining exactly where illegals can be coming across.”
The university has a handful of drones on hand right now and the fleet will grow over time.
People can register for the course once the Auburn Aviation Center website goes live in one to three weeks.
