Why Are Universities Buying Up Drones Faster Than Police Departments?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/155229/why_are_universities_buying_up_drones_faster_than_police_departments/

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Photo Credit: AFP

For all the attention given to U.S. law enforcement’s interest in adopting drones, the biggest users turn out to be not police departments, but universities. We learned this last week, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation forced the Federal Aviation Administration to reveal that it had approved 25 universities to fly drones in U.S. airspace. Not that universities were waiting on the FAA to begin working in the field: Last fall, Kansas State University created a degree in unmanned aviation. So far, 30 undergraduates have signed up.

The spreading drone curriculum is, for better and worse, a sign of the coming normalization of drones in American life. Interviews with university officials revealed widespread excitement about the possibilities of unmanned aviation technology, which has the potential to transform fields like agriculture and disaster response. The U.S. military, however, is funding parts of this academic research, and so are leading defense contractors. Whether their intentions are as pure as the universities’ is an open question.

“Universities are pushing the limits of the technology,” says Lora Weiss, chief lab scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute. “People are trying to understand how to develop reliable, robust and safe software for all kinds of applications.” Students and professors at Georgia Tech are working on projects ranging from noise-reduction technology for drone engines to the “Flying Android” scheme, an effort to program smartphones to control unmanned aerial vehicles.

At Kansas State University students are assisting the Kansas National Guard’s effort to improve its disaster response capabilities by developing drones that can survey towns hit by tornadoes, according to Kurt Barnhart, director of the university’s Applied Aviation Research Center. At Middle Tennessee State University students are focusing on “precision agriculture,” says Mark Blanks, flight manager for unmanned aviation systems. “They can use an unmanned system to look at weed encroachment,” he explains. “If they can identify where the major problems are, the farmer doesn’t have to spray the whole field with herbicides. It’s better for the environment and it saves the farmer money.”

[greytdemocrat]

1. Pretty cool.

Although I wonder what's going to happen when a student sends one into a house or school by mistake.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. If a student crashes a drone

it's probably like when a student causes an explosion in a lab.

Much yelling by professors and administrators, a few high-fives by classmates. And insurance covers the damage.

If nobody gets hurt, it's good.

I wonder if I can get a student to crash a drone through my kitchen. Hmmm...

[marmar]

2. Those dystopian sci-fi future flicks get a step closer to our reality every day.

nt

[xchrom]

3. those are the movies that keeping popping up in my mind.

they were oddly spot on -- and at the time -- you kinda knew that.

and now here it is.

[KG]

5. tut-tut. don't you know these kinda things have been around for years, and nobody's used them for

bad things, so you can rest assured nobody ever will?

[Blue_Tires]

6. actually, this is pretty smart foresight by everyone involved

1. The military gets a wealth of minimal-cost experimentation, R+D and analysis, including a thousand ideas for new "uses" that they never would have dreamed of

2. The universities get the research grants

3. Students who master, or even improve upon this technology now will have their pick of primo jobs after graduating

4. The military contractor who makes these nightmares will be able to sell that many more to the Pentagon

Of course it goes without saying that the rest of the citizens end up as the losers in the long run...

[zipplewrath]

7. Your cynicism is understandable

But almost every bit of technology in your life has relationships going back to the DoD. It's hard to separate the space program from our spy satellite technology at all. Virtually all communication and weather satellite technology is defense department derivatives. Computer technology, including software, has roots that go all the way back to the Manhattan project. What you are seeing with drones is nothing different. The "civilian" applications are endless, and far from nefarious.

Traffic monitoring, forest fire fighting, search and rescue, and heck, a cheap replacement for the Goodyear Blimp in sports broadcasting could all benefit from this basic technology. So there is little wonder that universities will want to have some of them. And yes, it will be to pursue grants from every source including both the DoD and the FCC, as well as the Department of Interior.

[aikoaiko]

8. I would assume research and development of new applications...

...just like universities should be doing.

[Taylor Smite]

9. Universities

have always had aviation-related majors that requie flight time. Purdue has its own airport. Same for University of illinois.