Category: Drones & Grants

Alfred University is offering its first cross-disciplinary class between its College of Business and Engineering School on entrepreneurship and drone technology.

At the end of the course and lab, AU students will be able to take their drone commercial pilot licenses, and are eligible to assist in flying their drones over local farmland this summer in an effort to gather data that will be used to help local farmers increase their crop yield and health.

We thank the Appalachian Regional Commission for their $150,000 grant and Alfred University for matching that grant.  This is an opportunity to attempt a daring and new and exciting inter-disciplinary program. 

The Appalachian region faces well known and significant challenges to its economic growth, and the effectiveness of using experiential learning activities to teach technical skills and entrepreneurship is well documented. Within this context, the purpose of this grant is to promote economic growth in the Appalachian region by educating its workforce in drone technology and entrepreneurship in order to increase their current skills, develop new skills, and motivate the workforce to develop new business opportunities. Program graduates will then reinforce their new skills in the summer of 2019 by flying drones over local farms in order to gather data with the goal of increasing crop yield and health.

This project proposes to create programs at Alfred University that is expected to engage students in the Engineering and Business schools in: 1) Drone (UAV) Repair/ Maintenance; 2) Drone (UAV) Pilot Training and licensing; and, 3) Innovation Enterprise Entrepreneurship. These programs are credit-bearing for Alfred University students and provide certifications for non-students.

Today, Alfred University faculty from the School of Engineering and the College of Business received an Appalachian Regional Commission grant to educate the local workforce in drone repair and maintenance, flight operations leading to a commercial drone flight license, and in entrepreneurship skills leading to business creation.  The students will then work with local farmers by using drones to help increase crop yield and health.

We want to publicly acknowledge all the new friends we met on this journey and who supported us in this project, specifically:

• Allegany County Farm Bureau
• Allegany County Office of Planning
• Brown Property Development
• Business students from Alfred University School of Business
• Congressman Tom Reed, US House Representative, 23rd District, NY
• Cornell University Cooperative Extension Allegany County
• Dean of the Alfred University, College of Professional Studies
• Dean of the Alfred University, Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering
• Engineering students from Alfred University Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering
• Hunt Real Estate
• IncubatorWorks
• Wellsville Area Chamber of Commerce
• Western New York Regional Economic Development Council

We will need your continued support to make this project a success, and to use it as a platform to educate our students, and to attract drone research and commercialization to our community.

Thank you all, Fiat Lux!

Success!

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has advanced our grant application to the final stage where we will present our project before ARC in Washington DC.

Our project could not have gotten this far without the super support of staff from the New York State Department of State, Southern Tier West, Alfred University, and our students.  Thank you all.

We will need your further support for this final stage.

Fiat Lux!

 

On November 14th Alfred University Drone Club students and faculty helped IncubatorWorks celebrate 30 years of entrepreneurship and innovation at their Alfred NY location.

IncubatorWorks is a resource for business startups and expansions in the Southern Tier of New York. From ideation, to testing, to limited production, to full manufacturing – they help by offering advanced technologies, flexible manufacturing infrastructure, and professional mentoring.

With two locations [Alfred and Corning], their mission is to help entrepreneurs start or grow businesses in a cost effective, supportive environment until the business is ready to graduate to its own dedicated space.

As part of Start-Up NY and in partnership with the Southern Tier Startup Alliance and the Western NY Regional Hot Spot, IncubatorWorks provides the most comprehensive business and manufacturing ‘incubator’ network in the region. This network provides direct support and services from the following universities and colleges: Alfred State College, Alfred University, Binghamton University, Cornell University, Clarkson University, Corning Community College, SUNY Fredonia and the University of Buffalo.

 

Today, more than 15 Alfred University students met on the AU football field in order to test their drone flight skills. . .and to have pizza.

Most flew trainer drones, but a select few also flew more high-end drones, such as the Phantom or Inspire drones, which will be used for the club’s commercial activities in the near future.  The students also created an obstacle course to hone their flight skills; maybe future drone races are in the works!