A meeting held at San Diego Miramar College earlier this year brought several colleges together to discuss how to advance the Advanced Transportation and Logistics (ATL) sector by promoting courses and internships in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The San Diego Regional Unmanned Aerial Vehicle meeting was held in May and attended by representatives from San Diego State University and six of the region’s 10 community colleges: Palomar College, Miramar College, Grossmont College, Southwestern College, MiraCosta College, and San Diego City College. Read More →

The Second Annual Drone Industry and Education Summit

The Second Annual Drone Industry and Education Summit event held April 19 at the Center Club Orange County brought together faculty, business and industry partners/leaders, K-12 representatives from local school districts and ROPs, and non-profit educational organizations such as The Autonomy Foundation and Vital Link. Jaime Gonzalez, Regional Director of Employer Engagement for Advanced Transportation and Logistics in the Orange County region, was among the attendees. Read More →

Donald Laird, Department Chair of Computer Studies at Santa Rosa Jr. College, hosted a Drone Symposium for college faculty interested in drones on July 30, 2018. Pam Gutman, the DSN—Advanced Transportation and Logistics, assisted Laird in recruiting faculty, sharing curriculum, and demonstrating specific drones.
College faculty and Deans from the Bay Area attended the day-long symposium to learn about Laird’s drone program and what other colleges in the region were offering in their drone programs. Read More →

Two Drone Workshop Events Already Hosted

Grossmont College received its drones from the ATRE statewide sector earlier this summer and has wasted no time putting them to use in an effort to recruit high school students to its programs.

The college has already hosted two events that brought students from local high schools to campus to see the drones in action and learn more about how they work. Faculty held a mini workshop and students had the opportunity to see the flight controller and software kit behind it.

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Easy to Buy but Tough to Operate Legally

It’s easier than ever to buy a drone these days, but perhaps tougher than ever to legally operate one. Donations from the Advanced Transportation and Renewable Energy Sector are helping one local instructor change that with a new class at San Diego Miramar College.

Max Moore, Assistant Professor of Aviation Operations at Miramar, received various DJI drones and cameras from ATRE to use as part of a new course set to launch next fall. The course will focus on how to legally operate drones in the San Diego area — something that sounds easy but is not necessarily so, Moore says.

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Using Cutting-Edge Technology to Take Farming to the Next Level

Farming and drones might not sound like two things that would ever go together, but a program at West Hills College Coalinga (WHC) is preparing students to use this cutting-edge technology to take farming to the next level.

Through funding from the Advanced Transportation and Renewable Energy Sector (ATRE), WHC received Phantom 2 and Phantom 4 drones for its Precision Agriculture program, which also includes instruction in GIS software, automated tractor systems, and other technologies that are being used to change the way farming is done across California.

Terry Brase, an instructor in the Precision Agriculture program, supervised a group of students using Phantom 2 drones to fly over a pistachio orchard. The students guided the drones over the orchard and then loaded the images into Maps Made Easy software to view.

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Drones for “Non-Hobby” Use Require an FAA Remote Pilot License

The FAA requires that all persons flying a drone for “non-hobby” use obtain an FAA remote pilot license (known as a Part 107 license) by taking a 60-question written test. Since teaching is considered a “non-hobby” use, any faculty member who will instruct students to fly a drone must obtain an FAA license by passing the FAA exam.
To help prepare community college instructors for this exam, Gerald Bernstein, ATRE Assistant DSN in the Bay Area, has created a two-day Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Test Prep course. Bernstein is a private pilot and Aeronautical Engineer by training, and utilized his experience in these areas, as well as his success passing the FAA exam, to create the course content.
So far, it the course has been given to approximately 35 Bay Area faculty from diverse programs and of the four who have gone on to take the FAA exam, all have passed.
For more information about the sUAS Test Prep course, contact Pamela Gutman, ATRE DSN in the Bay Area at ce_pgutman@ccsf.edu.