I received an invitation in November 2017 to attend the upcoming “National Drone Educators Conference | Aerial Pathways From The Top Down.” We arrived a day early to participate in a separate pre-conference meeting Professor Chris Cruz from West Valley College had put together for UAS related educators who were part of National Science Foundation grants. While there were few of us able to attend this gathering, it was extremely beneficial as we each were able to share our current UAS related curriculum and discuss trends that we should consider addressing. Further sharing revolved around: local support for our programs; regulatory and insurance or institutional issues; industry support and needs; equipment, technology and software being used or considered; and DACUMs (Developing A Curriculum) that have been completed. Chris Carter, the Deputy Director of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC), had a wealth of valuable material to share with the rest of us, which set the bar pretty high for the remainder of the weekend and I was once again eager to see what additional nuggets would be gained over those next couple of days.
At the conference itself, I met a number of faculty members currently incorporating or looking to develop drone curriculum. Some had used the Course Outline of Record I put together for our GCIP 168 and 268 Digital Imaging with Drones II courses at Palomar College. Many shared the details of where they were in the development of their programs or asked questions about our own while we were manning a booth in the vendor area of the event. Other discussions occurred during breaks or eating times in between sessions. The biggest surprise to me was the range of students in a class.
Coming Up…
What’s next? Palomar College Drone-Con 2018. This year we’ve doubled capacity, repeated and staggered a few of the sessions so attendees don’t miss out on the information that most interests them, and are including topics requested from the feedback we received after our 2017 conference… like “Starting a UAS program at your school.” Come join us.
https://palomaruas.weebly.com/event-details.html
Mark Bealo
Co-Principal Investigator
Mark Bealo is the Co-Principal Investigator of the UASTEP project. He is a Professor of Graphic Communications at Palomar College, and the primary instructor and curriculum developer for the introductory and advanced Digital Imaging with UAS classes currently offered at the College. Mark develops UAS curriculum and program at Palomar College, and coordinates a variety of student outreach events as well as workshops for high school students and educators.