Drone Day 2024

We held the third annual Drone Day on March 20, 2024! As in previous years, the day was broken up with presentations and talks in the morning, followed by lunch, and drone demonstrations with flying in the afternoon. From the CCT Data Science team, the hosts were Kristina Riemer and Chris Schnaufer. 

Tyson Swetnam started the day off with his keynote speech on challenges of the changing legal landscape surrounding flying drones. This was followed by Dean Riley on using hyperspectral sensors for mining; Brett Carr and Roberto Aguilar (presenting separately) on modeling the use of UASs on Mars. After break, Cindy Norton presented on using Terrestrial and UAS LiDAR and tree rings for forest productivity. Tyson Swetnam filled in for Jeff Gillan (who wasn’t able to be present) on Data Management in the drone age. James McNabb rounded out the morning by presenting on modeling surface hydrology in relation to mining. We then had an open discussion on what the future of the Tucson drone community looks like, led by Kristina. 

We are hoping to post the recordings of these talks on YouTube soon, so be on the look out! 

After a plentiful lunch of pizza from the local pizza shop Fresco, we headed over to Bear Down Field where folks displayed or flew several drones, including one brand new one! We also had some curious passers by stop in to look at and discuss the drones. One at a time, the drones were flown up and down the field and shown off. We were lucky to have great weather! After the last drone landed we called it a day. 

We are planning to organize some more smaller scale events, including starting up the drone discussion group again. If you would like to get involved in the Tucson and UA drone community, subscribe to the mailing list and check out the website: https://drones.arizona.edu/