Summer Camps

The 5-day virtual drone summer academy (due to COVID-19 restrictions) is designed for local high school students as a part of the UASTEP project’s broader outreach efforts. It was co-produced between project team members, consultants from University of California-Irvine (UCI), and local high school teachers.  In addition to teaching students about drone safety and regulations, the camp also introduced students to drone careers and real-world applications. Specifically, students learned about how to capture and processing their own data for 3D modeling and mapping applications, as well as used block-based coding languages to plan and program drone flights. 

The academy followed the structure below:

Day 1

AM: Introduction to drone regulations and applications, Tello setup, Manual flight  

PM: FAA DroneZone demo, Tello intelligent flight modes

Day 2

AM: Introduction to drone 3D modeling and best practices, Data capture

PM: Introduction to 3D modeling software, Process drone data

Day 3

AM: Introduction to block-based coding languages with DroneBlocks

PM: Student 3D model exhibition and presentation

Day 4

AM: Program flight plans with block-based coding languages

PM: Test and refine flight plans

Day 5

AM: Student pre-programmed flight demonstration and presentation