TRITON Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 48

To Infinity and BeyOnd Regulations are as much a certainty as the permanence and pervasiveness of drones in our lives . But if drones are our future , then what is the future of drones ? This is a multibillion-dollar question , and interestingly , the answer may be determined less by advances in drone technology than by innovations in computers , data systems and robotics .
“ We create more data every day than humanity has ever made ,” says Angelo . “ And that ’ s only going to increase as resolutions go up and this tech gets more adopted .” The true back end of the burgeoning drone industry will be creating ways to analyze that data , quickly and in real time .
UC San Diego professor Ryan Kastner , cofounder of Engineers for Exploration and a specialist in embedded computer systems , says changes in both types of technology — drones and data processing — have already been dramatic . “ The computing platforms weren ’ t cheap enough or power efficient enough ,” he says of the early days of drones . But as the technology has changed , so have the possibilities , and according to Kastner , automation will be key .
Continuing the legacy of Angelo , Engineers for Exploration ’ s latest undergraduate drone pilot , Dominique Meyer , Sixth ’ 17 , agrees the true power of drones will be in computing . “ I think we ’ re going to be able to integrate supercomputers into the drones in the very near future ,” says Meyer . “ The drones will do the data processing in the air , and send down condensed data close to real time . If that happens , what might take us a couple of months to process now could be done in seconds .”
“ I think we ’ re going to be able to integrate supercomputers into the drones in the very near future .”
Dominique Meyer , ’ 17
On THE RiSE ( L to R ) Engineers for Exploration co-founder Albert Lin , ’ 04 , with Eric Lo , ’ 15 , and Dominique meyer , ’ 17 , take flight in guatemala .
Photo courtesy Engineers for Exploration
46 TRITON | FALL 2015