New drone minor is taking flight
In just a matter of 12 credits, students at Utah State University now have the opportunity to earn a minor in Drones. This minor is fairly new to the campus and was created through the work of Andreas “Baron” Wesemann, director of the professional pilot program, and Daniel “Wookie” Robinson, drone class instructor.
For Wesemann it has been his goal to have a drone minor available to students at the university. USU is the first college in Utah to offer this minor.
“When you look at the opportunity to integrate drones into education, it’s about using drones as a tool for their major. It can be used for data collection and aerial photography,” Wesemann said. “I wanted to provide a outlet for those to understand aviation. The same principles that fly airplanes fly drones and it’s a opportunity to help other students understand aviation.”
Drones have rapidlt grown in popularity in recent years. Consumers can purchase drones at Best Buy or Amazon and learn to fly in a matter of days. Robinson said due to this rapid rise, many people don’t understand the rules that come along with flying. When students enroll in the drone classes, they learn the basic flight rules.
“Anyone can go buy a drone and fly it. The difference is understanding what to do with the drone and how to use it to fly professionally. For the most part, you are flying a glorified selfie stick. We change that mentality into using it for a scientific tool,” Robinson said.
After learning the safety guidelines and rules of drone flight, students in classes have the opportunity to build and fly their own drones. By the end of the course, students become professionally licensed pilots.
Robinson said as an instructor he loves being able to see students go through this process and become drone pilots.
“I love when it clicks. When students go from being someone whos never touched a drone to a pilot. When they understand the aviation lingo and can take situations and walk them through like a pilot. But my absolute favorite part is getting them out and flying,” Robinson said.
Kenna Kelser, aviation marketing graduate assistant, helps promote the drone minor around campus. She herself is a licensed drone pilot and hopes other students will see the value in the minor too.
“Every major can benefit from this minor.The professors are really passionate about what they do. Dan Robinson is like a kid in a candy shop,” Kelser said. “It’s a career and it can help you, but it’s also really fun. I think it can help so much as technology develops. Any job looks at that and sees it as a edge.”
Wesemann and Robinson both have used drones in their professional careers aside from being involved with the program on campus.
Wesemann was in the air force for 27 years. While in the air force, he explained, they used drones for search and rescue.
“We can use drone tech to go find people. I used data of these drones to collect data and figure out where people were. We were able to save their lives. It was a phenomenal use of the technology,” Wesemann said.
Robinson uses his skills as a pilot to share drones with others. He does demonstrations of tricks at airshows and gets payed to do it.
“The most fun has been flying in front of 10,000 people at a airshow. I got to show off and sign autographs,” Robinson said.
Students enrolled in the classes agree that being apart of the program has been a good experience.
Hank Costner, mechanical engineering major, is currently enrolled in the intro to drone course. He’s enjoyed getting to work with the new technology.
“There is a lot that goes into drones, especially with the in-flight computer stuff. It’s cool to be able to use a remote and fly something around. I want to own one in the future,” Costner said.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to the new minor. Wesemann hopes to continue expanding the program by adding more classes, instructors, drones and adding concurrent enrollment for high schools as well.
“We want to train people not just to use drones for their major but for their profession. That’s our futures. We are starting to do things here at Utah State that are going to be revolutionary,” Wesemann said.
—shelby.black@aggiemail.usu.edu
@shelbsterblack