Month: June 2017

Success!

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has advanced our grant application to the final stage where we will present our project before the NYS Department of State, the NYS Governor, and ultimately ARC in Washington DC.

Our project could not have gotten this far without the super support of staff from Southern Tier West, Alfred University, and our students.  Thank you all.  We will need your further support for this final stage.

Fiat Lux!

Today, with the assistance of Dean Nancy Evangelista, faculty of the Alfred University School of Business, and the Alfred University Engineering School presented a grant proposal before the Appalachian Regional Commission for using drones to gather agricultural data, and for workforce development.

The goals of the grant are increase new regional jobs and/or introduce new skills for old jobs and/or create new businesses that use drone technology.  We propose to achieve these goals by combining theory and practice:

• Theory: creating an educational program that teaches drone flight/repair/maintenance skills, as well as the business/entrepreneurship skills needed to create a sustainable business; and,
• Practice: using drones to obtain agricultural data to help local farmers increase their crop health and yield.

Hopefully our project will receive funding – wish us luck!