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.
“The number of inquiries and new partnership proposals from business and industry since the event clearly show that the project has taken off, and this year’s summit captured and generated tremendous excitement in the community,” said Lisa Knuppel.
Lisa is the Dean of Career and Technical Education at Orange Coast College, which is the project leader for the Orange County Regional Drone/Autonomous Systems Project.
“Business and public service agencies like the Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa police departments have reached out to us to provide a number of new student opportunities for internships, industry visits, and even paid employment since the event.”
Increased Awareness About Drones in the Media and Popular Culture
Knuppel attributes the growth in the project and the summit attendance to increased awareness about drones in the media and popular culture, but also to the partnerships between education and industry that formed as a result of the first summit held in 2018. New industries are adapting and using drone technology every day, and the response to this year’s summit demonstrates that industry sees this regional project as a way to recruit students and network with our faculty and other business leaders.
As a result of a speaker at last year’s summit, Orange Coast College is exploring and developing innovative new classes that will train students to use drones in diverse career sectors such as construction management, geography/GIS, television broadcasting and even ocean science. Other colleges involved in the project are actively engaging with industry contacts made at the summit events: Santa Ana College will be hosting a fall meetup event for students and businesses to make connections and explore job opportunities using drone technology in public services like fire and public safety.
“At the annual project summits we have listened, debated and collaborated to discern the most important trends and forces moving business and industry. We discuss their implications, and plan a course of action for community college drone and UAS/UAV curriculum and programs,” Knuppel said.
“Through the project we have researched and assimilated local, state and national data labor market data and forecasts, and taken on the challenge of creating accessible, open-access programs to train students for careers in the diverse industries in which drones are the tool of the future.”
With nearly 100 attendees, the second annual Orange County Drone Industry and Education Summit doubled last year’s attendance and appears poised to continue expanding well into the future.
