K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Things are a little slower at the Virgnia Tech Drone Park by the end of May, when the annual April crush of school tours and research projects and class visits and outreach events and drone races has receded. But earlier in the spring, the mild weather and a packed events calendar brought a steady stream of visitors that kept Madeline Hower, Madelyn Johnson, and Cason Kerrick even busier than their full undergraduate schedules already did.
Johnson just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from the College of Engineering. Kerrick and Hower wrapped up their third years in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Kerrick in aerospace engineering and Hower picking up majors in both disciplines. Together, the three interns helped shoulder the load of keeping the drone education facility, with its towering net and adjacent lab and classroom, running smoothly.
The drone park hosted nearly 1,000 individual visitors this year, including local school groups, researchers, students from 18 Virginia Tech departments, and companies. Sarah Macey, the park’s manager, said it's because of the interns that the park is able to serve so many people and support such a diverse range of projects.
"They are an extraordinary group of students," Macey said. "They bring an incredible level of professionalism and talent to their work, and combine it with a student's fresh perspective that makes drone technology feel more relatable and accessible for many of the people who come to the park."
The drone park, with a net that soars 85 feet high and a footprint the size of a football field, is one of the largest in the country, and it's in high demand. It opened in 2018, under the umbrella of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, and since then its success has been fueled in part by a string of dedicated undergraduate interns.
Johnson has been there almost the whole time. She met Tombo Jones, the director of Virginia Tech’s FAA-designated drone test site, at a career fair in the spring of 2018; he connected her with Macey, who also runs the test site’s training programs.
Hower and Kerrick found their way to the drone park in 2021 through an honors course on drone technology in public safety, where they collaborated with Virginia Tech police on a prototype design and developed an online course covering drone use on college campuses. They worked with Macey and some of the test site's engineers on these projects, and Macey was so impressed that she recruited both of them.
Continue reading: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2022/05/ictas-droneparkinterns-2022.html
Johnson just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from the College of Engineering. Kerrick and Hower wrapped up their third years in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Kerrick in aerospace engineering and Hower picking up majors in both disciplines. Together, the three interns helped shoulder the load of keeping the drone education facility, with its towering net and adjacent lab and classroom, running smoothly.
The drone park hosted nearly 1,000 individual visitors this year, including local school groups, researchers, students from 18 Virginia Tech departments, and companies. Sarah Macey, the park’s manager, said it's because of the interns that the park is able to serve so many people and support such a diverse range of projects.
"They are an extraordinary group of students," Macey said. "They bring an incredible level of professionalism and talent to their work, and combine it with a student's fresh perspective that makes drone technology feel more relatable and accessible for many of the people who come to the park."
The drone park, with a net that soars 85 feet high and a footprint the size of a football field, is one of the largest in the country, and it's in high demand. It opened in 2018, under the umbrella of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, and since then its success has been fueled in part by a string of dedicated undergraduate interns.
Johnson has been there almost the whole time. She met Tombo Jones, the director of Virginia Tech’s FAA-designated drone test site, at a career fair in the spring of 2018; he connected her with Macey, who also runs the test site’s training programs.
Hower and Kerrick found their way to the drone park in 2021 through an honors course on drone technology in public safety, where they collaborated with Virginia Tech police on a prototype design and developed an online course covering drone use on college campuses. They worked with Macey and some of the test site's engineers on these projects, and Macey was so impressed that she recruited both of them.
Continue reading: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2022/05/ictas-droneparkinterns-2022.html
