Drones are more than just toys you play with in the park; they can be your next business opportunity. The University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering started offering a new class this summer that focuses on the many applications of drones.
“There are literally hundreds of business applications. The sky’s the limit with what these robots can do,” said Chris Johnson, the creator and instructor of this new course. Johnson is the director of the UW Flight Lab in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and a program specialist in unmanned aerial systems.
The course is called “Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems” and was created by Johnson after he won a $40,710 grant from the UW College of Engineering Education Innovation Committee.
The inaugural class is small with about ten enrolled students, but still large enough to help shape the curriculum for semesters to come. Interest in the class hasn’t just been from engineering students. “This is offered through the College of Engineering, but I do have students coming from colleges across campus to get licenses to fly drones for commercial purposes,” said Johnson.
According to Johnson, drones are an emerging technology that can be used for artistic and engineering purposes. One of the business applications he highlighted is the use of drones in construction sites to monitor construction progress, so mistakes can be caught early. “It’s all about data collection or quality footage for artistic and marketing purposes,” explained Johnson. “Drones are being used to inspect utility lines, railroads, windmills, cell phone towers, you name it.”
Drones are also being used to assist in farming, firefighting, and emergency response. So why has the university waited until now to offer a class? “The regulations that govern commercial drone operators were published last August, so the timing was right, “said Johnson.
The first half of the course focuses on the laws and regulations around commercial drone operation. The students study the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and take the FAA exam as their midterm exam, so they can become FAA-certified. The students also study weather theory and learn how to gain access to controlled airspace to ensure safe drone flying.
In the second half of the course, students will get hands-on experience and learn how to run a business on drones. As their final project, students will “actually fly drones and turn the data into an end product, like a marketing video or engineering model,” said Johnson.
While this might just be a certification introduction course, Johnson sees this leading to something bigger at the university. “In the near future, I think we will have courses that are focused on data analytics, artificial intelligence, and remote sensing, some of the deeper engineering type technologies that make drones possible,” Johnson said.
