Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2019 Issue No. 7 | Page 56

UNmanned Systems
training
is now embedded in many college Programs
Washington’s Community and Technical Colleges are embedding technical training on
the use of drones in non-related programs
By: Mary Kaye Bredeson, executive director; and Jennifer Ferrero, APR, ACB, ALB, marketing communications Center of
Excellence for Unmanned and Autonomous Systems
Jennifer Ferrero
APR, ACB, ALB Communications and
Marketing COE for Unmanned and
Autonomous Systems
www.coeuas.com
L
earning to operate drones is not only trendy, but also is becoming standard in many
community and technical college programs that have nothing to do with unmanned flight.
“There is not a market for someone who is just a drone pilot,” said David Stasney, L.G.
LH.G., water resources instructor, Spokane Community College (SCC).
Stasney is a licensed geologist and hydrogeologist who started working with drones about
three years ago. He said, “I was so excited about the possibilities in my industry that I was
losing sleep over it.”
He said that collecting data via drone imagery — regarding orthophotography (shoreline
erosion, aquatic vegetation), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), thermal
imaging, and monitoring and sampling — is being used in many commercial applications
by students of the Environmental Sciences program at SCC.
Mary Kaye Bredeson
Executive Director for COE for
Unmanned and Autonomous Systems
www.coeuas.com
Recently Stasney had a student engaged with Dow Chemical for a project in Southeastern
Washington in an agricultural research setting. Another recent project by SCC students was
for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cheney, Washington, where they conducted drone
flights of a newly constructed wetland to create contour maps, estimate volumes, and estab-
lish baseline monitoring data for comparisons over time.
COE UAS SPOTLIGHT
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS