Public Policy & Administration 597B - ST- Unmanned Aircraft Systems

This class will be a project-based interdisciplinary course which will provide instruction and guidance to students as they gain practical experience using UASs in a variety of applications. Classroom instruction will cover the basics of flight, mission planning, data analysis, data visualization and an overview UAS operations and applications across multiple sectors of industry and research. The class utilizes curriculum and content from Trillium Learning's Unmanned Aircraft Systems - Scientific Applications course. Case studies of prior successful applications, an overview of the current UAS technologies, and discussion of future prospects will be discussed. Students will develop piloting skills by flying light-weight practice quadcopters under the supervision of the instructor. Additionally, students will have lab instruction in which they process and analyze imagery and data acquired by UASs using combinations of different photogrammetry and GIS software packages. The course content is not exhaustive, but rather this is an introductory course that develops fundamental skills that students will need to execute their own projects using UASs. Example projects might include: Damage assessment and Infrastructure Inspection, Agricultural Health Assessment, Real-time mapping and Development of GIS layers, Invasive species mapping. Additionally, support for preparation for the FAA small UAS Knowledge Test pursuant CFR 14 Part 107 will be provided.