Session 1

Session 2

Drone Flying

Take to the Skies

This course introduces students to aerial robotics, otherwise known as drones. Drones are used in so many areas, from photography of events to medical supply delivery in remote regions. Their future use is exciting too, with companies such as Amazon and Door Dash promising delivery via drone as coming soon.

Understanding how these systems work and how to use these systems are the key goals of the course. Students will gain hands-on experience flying and programming drones while exploring their vast application space.

Curriculum

In this hands-on course, students will actively use a drone and work together to solve a problem. Students will learn how to fly a drone safely and well through indoor obstacle courses and racing. After manually flying the drone, students will learn how to program a drone to control its movement and gather information (with no previous programming experience required). This turns the system into an autonomous robot for a wide range of applications.

Students will then explore how to use the data gathered by a drone and explain different application areas of use by drones. Teams will compete in a final challenge to show off their flying and project skills. Students will learn about Federal Aviation Authority regulations and take the Recreation Drone Safety Test.

Dean Niraj Chaudhary and student working with a drone
Planned Topics

For drones, the course will cover the basic structure of a drone, how they fly and how we control their flight, how to gather data with a drone and the advantages and disadvantages of drones.

For drone applications, the course will cover a range of application spaces including aerial photography and mapping, aerial delivery and similar uses. The course will discuss an overview of how the drone works within these spaces, the pros and cons of using drones within these spaces and the challenges of using drones in these application spaces.

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Elizabeth Basha
Faculty Co-Lead
Elizabeth Basha

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010
MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005
BS, University of the Pacific, 2003

Professor Elizabeth Basha will serve as the primary contact with support from Yusif Imanov and Niraj Chaudhary. Professor Basha's research is on aerial robots and their use in environmental monitoring. Dean Chaudhary explores aerial robotics from a safety and photography perspective.

Faculty Co-Lead
Niraj Chaudhary

Niraj has a passion for working with faculty and students to explore new technologies and their potential use in teaching and learning. Before joining Pacific, Niraj served as Head of Library Information and Educational Technology Services at University of Colorado Denver.

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Niraj Chaudhary
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