Iain has been working in the mining industry for more than 25 years in 15 countries, across five continents. He is currently a Senior Manager, Digital Mining, with Barrick Gold, which monitors new and innovative technologies relevant to all aspects of mining, from exploration to closure. Spatial data collection, management and analysis is a specialty for Iain, and the growing use of UAVs in mining is a particular interest. Barrick has been using UAVs since 2012 and are ready to move beyond photogrammetry.

Classes:

UAV Best Practices for Mining and Aggregates: A Case Study

Panels:

Drones in Mining and Aggregates: An End-User’s Perspective

Bill is the Virtual Construction Manager for PCL Construction’s Orlando Division. Bill’s role includes leading the Virtual Construction efforts of the District, including the production of 3D logistics planning, the creation of construction models, virtual systems coordination, 4D scheduling, the use of robotic total stations, 3D laser scanning, drone applications, the development of new technologies, and reviewing the viability of new product solutions.

Bill received his Degree from The Ohio State University in construction management. He joined PCL 12 years ago as a Field Engineer and has progressed to his current position as Virtual Construction Manager. His field experience includes projects in the hospitality, entertainment, aviation, and industrial market sectors. He draws on his experiences in the field to validate and match new technologies to real-world situations. These experiences also allow Bill to work closely with project teams to improve efficiency and quality through the use of technology.

Panels:

Drones in Construction: An End-User’s Perspective

Robert is a fourth-generation farmer from north central Idaho managing 1,300 dryland acres of wheat, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas, alfalfa, and cows. The farm is situated on the edge of the rolling hills of the Palouse and not far from his Alma Mater, the University of Idaho, where he received his B.S. in Agriculture Business.

His journey with precision agriculture started in 2003 using a PDA for simple mapping. That evolved into all different types of equipment, including Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in 2006. Robert is the first farmer to own and use a UAS. His vision and advocacy of these technologies helped him become the Precision Agriculture Institute’s 2009 International Farmer of the Year. Robert has been on the leading edge of the precision agriculture utilization in the PNW and U.S.

Since that time, Robert received an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2011, taking him to South America for six weeks studying these technologies. During the fall of 2012, he spent three weeks in Germany on a McCloy Fellowship for agriculture. In Idaho he was recognized as one of the most influential U of I College of Agriculture and Life Science (CALS) alumni, receiving the 2013 Governor’s Award for Agriculture Technology and Innovation, and being honored as a 2015 U of I CALS Distinguished Alumni.

Robert’s vision and leadership ability has been recognized by the positions he has held, including president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, chairman of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Research & Tech Committee, chairman of the U.S. Wheat/NAWG Joint Biotech Committee, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation county president, an initial member of Idaho’s UAS steering committee, and an initial advisory board member of the Drone World Expo.

Classes:

Opportunities for Precision Agriculture in the New World
Surgical Agriculture: Going Beyond Precision

Panels:

Notes from the Field: Precision Agriculture Best Practices

As CEO of Stockpile Reports, David brings over 20 years of software innovation in the technology sector as a seasoned entrepreneur and Fortune 100 executive. Previously, David led led product strategy for big data analytics and Wi-Fi companies. He spent over 10 years at Hewlett-Packard where he established and managed their software development consulting practice in telecomm. David holds both a Master’s and Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science (MSCS, BSCS) from Purdue University. David Boardman also sits on the Board for Open Perception, focused on advancing open source software for 2D and 3D processing of sensory data.

Panels:

Drones in Mining and Aggregates: An End-User’s Perspective (moderator)

Adam has led Sumac’s small, but highly effective Geomatics and GIS team as Manger since 2011. A Registered Professional Forester in the Province of Ontario and an Ontario Forest Resource Inventory certified photogrammetrist, Adam has pursued a career in information management, with a strong emphasis on the use of GIS and remote sensing in the forestry industry and natural resource management. Most recently, Adam has the spearheaded the development of Sumac’s Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) program, providing class leading aerial imaging, survey and analysis services to the forestry, mining and civil engineering sector.

Events:

Pre-conference: Intro to Surveying and Mapping

Marc is Vice President National Freight Rail at Jacobs Engineering. He has more than 28 years of experience in developing technology solutions for rail clients, including passenger and freight services. Marc holds a Geographic Information System Professional (GISP) certification from Cal Poly Pomona, a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Chapman University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He also holds an FAA Remote Pilot Certification.

Panels:

Infrastructure & Utility Inspection: An End-User’s Perspective

Tamara is chief technology officer for Ligado Networks. She is responsible for Ligado’s network design, deployment, and operations. In this role, she leads the company’s development of a next-generation network that can support advanced radio technology suitable for emerging use cases in innovating industries and categories such as connected cars, mobile healthcare, and mission critical enterprise applications.

Before joining Ligado, Tamara was a senior TMT advisor at Nexius Insight where her clients included Cisco and several large private equity firms. Previously, she had co-founded and served as CEO of 4DK Technologies, Inc., a technology solutions firm that was acquired by Radius Networks in early 2014. During her tenure at 4DK Technologies, Tamara and her team were granted 6 USPTO patents.

From 2001 to 2005, as Vice President of Technology, Strategy, Research and Architecture for Nextel Communications, Tamara was responsible for all technology strategy and long-term network architecture and technology research. In this role, Tamara drove development of push-to-talk technology for 3G and many of the technology concepts that became 4G LTE. She also drove development of the second largest private data network in North America. For a decade prior, she served Nextel as a Regional Vice President of Engineering and Operations responsible for the Northeast region.

Tamara attended the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, completing the Strategic Business Leadership program; and Laney College where she studied media communications.

Panels:

Spectrum Solutions on the Horizon for UASs

Diana is the Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy at PrecisionHawk. Prior to joining PrecisionHawk, Diana developed and led the UAS and Robotics Practice Group at the law firm of LaBarge Weinstein. Diana has presented on technology law issues at Stanford University, Columbia University, New York University and NASA. She is a legal contributor at Robohub and her articles have appeared in publications including Private Equity Manager, The Corporate Counsellor, The Lawyer’s PC and Linux Journal. Diana has been quoted on regulatory issues surrounding drones by media outlets including Forbes, The New York Times, The Guardian, Popular Science, The Globe and Mail, CBC and NPR.

Panels:

Privacy Issues Related to Expanded UAS Operations

Andrew is COO at Uplift Data Partners, a full-service drone technology company focused on flying, analyzing and delivering data insights for construction. Andrew has spent three years on business development and operations in the drone industry. He is an expert at integrating drone technology into construction, ensuring safe and compliant drone operations, understanding of drones for enterprise, and more. Prior to Uplift, Andrew worked at SkySpecs, a drone company focused on automatic wind turbine inspections. He graduated from University of Michigan and is a big Michigan Football fan.

Classes:

The 6 Secrets to Success in UAV Flight Services

Craig has a background in electrical engineering with a focus in oceanography and has been designing remote and autonomous systems since 1989. He has logged many thousands of hours performing underwater surveys as an ROV pilot and has designed systems for SeaBotix, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Triton Logging, the Institute for Exploration, the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility and many others. For the past three years, Craig has been the Director of Software Engineering for 3D Robotics and has lead the Open Source ArduPilot UAV project. 

Events:

ArduPilot After Hours

Lisa is a partner and leading public policy lawyer at Hogan Lovells, where she co-chairs the firm’s global Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Group. Throughout her career, Lisa has worked to bridge the sizable knowledge gap between government policymaking and business innovation. In February 2015, Lisa was recognized in Fortune magazine's "Most Powerful Women" series for her efforts to integrate drones into the domestic airspace. 

Lisa has held a variety of positions at top levels of the Executive branch at the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In a series of presidential appointments, Lisa led work on high-priority policy initiatives for the Obama administration on issues spanning from open and transparent government to domestic use of UAS. Most recently, she led the DOJ's effort to develop policy that would govern the use of UAS in the United States. She also represented DOJ in the federal interagency process, considering UAS-related policy issues that are shared across departments and agencies.  Earlier in the Obama Administration, Lisa served in senior positions within three White House agencies: the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget/Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and the Office of Presidential Personnel.

Panels:

FAA Regulations: The Latest Outlook

Bill serves as the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) Unmanned Aircraft Program Lead, responsible for investigating accidents and incidents of commercial unmanned aircraft, as well as the NTSB flight program for utilizing UAS imagery and other support to multi-modal accident investigations. He developed the NTSB procedures and operating manual for agency Public COA and Part 107 UAS certifications, and is the chief pilot for NTSB UAS missions. 

Bill is an Investigator-in-Charge in the Office of Aviation Safety. He has been the lead investigator on numerous airline accidents, including Continental Airlines 1404 in Denver, Asiana Boeing 777 in San Francisco, and the B737/Legacy midair collision in Brazil. Bill worked for the FAA in air traffic, quality assurance, and development of GPS procedures. He is an active general aviation pilot and flight instructor, rated on the Embraer 170/190. Bill holds degrees in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle University, and in Geospatial Intelligence from Penn State.

Classes:

Using Small UAS and Photogrammetry to Support Multi-Modal Transportation Accident Investigation

Nicholas is the Executive Director of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, an organization designated by the FAA to conduct critical research into the certification and operational requirements necessary to safely integrate UAS into the national airspace system. Previously, Nicholas was the Director of Safety for the Test Site where he chaired the Independent Safety Review Board and implemented the Safety Management System. He was responsible for ensuring that safety is the test site’s highest priority. Nicholas represents the Test Site in multi-stakeholder standards groups and industry activities.

Classes:

North Dakota BVLOS Breakthroughs & Lessons Learned

In September 2015, Marke joined the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the Senior Advisor, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration. He provides executive direction and high level leadership to the FAA with responsibility for oversight of the work related to UAS. In addition, he is responsible for developing and delivering business and strategic plans for enterprise-level UAS initiatives, analyzing integration progress, engaging in scientific and research activities, and maintaining liaison with internal and external stakeholders. 

Prior to joining the FAA, Marke served as the Executive Director of the NextGen Institute (NGI). The primary role of NGI is to provide a mechanism through which the private sector actively engages with the USG in defining, developing, and implementing NextGen. In that position, he promoted the NextGen Institute throughout the industry, created awareness and gained new support for NextGen initiatives. During his tenure at NGI, he led two UAS Spectrum working groups, an FAA Global Leadership Roundtable, and commenced work on an ADS-B initiative on behalf of the Deputy Administrator.

Marke also served as the President and CEO of a highly successful aerospace consulting practice in Colorado. He retired in 2011 as the Air Force’s Director of Current Operations and Training. In that role, he led the standup of a new cyber career field and its integration into Air Force operations. He also worked on behalf of the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force ways to better integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems into our national airspace. This involved continuous engagement within the interagency (FAA and Homeland Defense) and numerous congressional delegations. As the Director of Training, he was also responsible for the standup of a separate career field and unique training path for those who fly Air Force Remote Piloted Aircraft today.

Panels:

The Regulatory Environment and Counter-UAS (C-UAS) Measures (moderator)

Todd is Director of Technology Services for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s UAS program, where he is focused on the safe use of unmanned aerial systems and advanced analytics. BNSF is a critical link that connects consumers with the global marketplace. For more than 160 years, BNSF has played a vital role in building and sustaining this nation's economy, and BNSF believes that UAS combined with powerful analytics and predictive capabilities will help support safe and efficient railway operations.

Via the FAA’s Pathfinder Program and based on a cooperative research and development agreement, BNSF has the distinct privilege of assisting the FAA in developing beyond line of sight (BLOS) capabilities and integration of BLOS automated aircraft into the NAS.

Prior to Todd’s employment at BNSF, he spent 15 years in various managerial and executive roles focused on voice, video and data transmission as well as advanced technology research. Along with several UAS certifications, Todd is also an active private pilot.

Classes:

UAS and Railroad Inspection

Panels:

Infrastructure & Utility Inspection: An End-User’s Perspective

Matthew focuses his practice at DLA Piper on complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters with extensive experience handling a wide range of litigation and regulatory investigations and class action litigation in varied federal, state and arbitration forums. Matthew’s legal experience includes the resolution of varied high-stakes commercial disputes with specific experience handling disputes involving the enforcement of restrictive covenants (such as non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality provisions); complex litigation involving misappropriation of trade secrets and other forms of unfair competition; and data privacy and security concerns in the healthcare, hospitality and technology sectors. 

Matthew is also experienced in the legal concerns affecting emerging growth technology companies with a specific focus on the developing field of law governing the commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

Matthew is active in numerous philanthropic and charitable organizations throughout South Florida and currently serves as the co-chair for the United Way Young Leader's Executive Committee and is a board member for First Serve Miami (formerly known as the Greater Miami Tennis & Education Foundation).

Panels:

Privacy Issues Related to Expanded UAS Operations (moderator)

As vice president at Qualcomm, Paul is responsible for corporate engineering services, including company-wide responsibility for regulatory engineering and compliance. He is responsible for Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and Regulatory certification of new wireless technologies being introduced into different market segments, including consumer electronics, automotive, aviation, industrial and medical markets. He works directly with Qualcomm customers and industry groups as well as country regulators, such as the FAA, FCC, and FDA in the US to ensure streamlined processes for device development and ease of radio certification. In 2016, Paul leveraged his experience with the FAA and obtained clearance for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) testing at Qualcomm’s San Diego campus, which is within a few miles of an active military air station and controlled Class B airspace, making Qualcomm the first commercial company to receive an FAA authorization for UAS flights in Class B airspace. Prior to joining Qualcomm in 1996, Paul held positions with a number of European-based companies where he was responsible for design and certification of both commercial and military projects.

Panel:

Spectrum Solutions on the Horizon for UASs

Julian is Commercial Director at Intelligent Energy. Based in Intelligent Energy’s San Francisco Bay area office, Julian heads up the Commercial team as well as US operations. Prior to joining Intelligent Energy, Julian held senior positions within the automotive industry at General Motors (Vauxhall) and TWR Group (Tom Walkinshaw Racing), which then led into the Cleantech sector with Microgen Engine Corporation where he held the position of CEO. Microgen developed and manufactured Stirling engines for the CHP, military and solar markets.

In addition to his role as Commercial Director, Julian is also a Non-Executive Board Member for IECHP Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Intelligent Energy.

Panels:

Take Charge: Battery Life Innovations on the Horizon

Charles brings over 10 years of experience operating UAVs in advanced remote sensing and precision agriculture. As a licensed pilot, he has experience with a range of full-size civil and military aircraft. Charles specializes in remote sensing and control systems and has taught sessions on Agricultural Remote Sensing for major conferences, including Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, USB Agricultural Conference, World Aquaculture Society, Association of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Louisiana Transportation Research Conference, and Louisiana Remote Sensing and GIS Workshop as well as teaching robotics to students at Louisiana State University. Charles founded the Environmental Robotics Institute for commercial drone applications and community outreach involving robotics. He is a pioneer of the use of UAVs for precision agriculture as part of an integrated agricultural control systems. Four of Charles' UAV designs have received FAA approval for commercial use. 

Classes:

Drone Remote Sensing in Agriculture: The Whole Farm Approach to Agricultural Management and Crop Scouting

Panels:

Drones in Precision Agriculture: An End-User’s Perspective

Andrew joined Firmatek in 2017, assuming responsibilities as Chief Drone Officer. He has spent his professional career in fast-growth technology domains, progressively moving from engineering to leadership roles. Prior to joining Firmatek, Andrew served as a managing partner with Texas-based drone services company, Drone Dynamics. Prior to that, he led the Enterprise Services team at 3D Robotics. Teaching experience includes Part 107 preparation, scaling drone operations, and webinars, including many use cases and mission types.

Andrew possesses BS and MS degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Classes:

Best Practices in UAV Data Gathering for Mining and Aggregates

Robert is the Corporate Operations Quality Assurance Manager at Crown Castle. He is leading the UAS/LiDAR effort at Crown Castle, and also leads a team responsible for development of and compliance to operational standards and procedures. Robert has over a decade of engineering and climbing experience in construction, modifications, inspections, mappings, and audits. Robert consults on industry panels including NWSA, TIA TR-14, the Wireless Industry Safety Task Force, and leads the committee on the Shunt Type Tension Meters.  Prior to graduating from North Carolina State with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a crew chief on CH-46 helicopters.

Panels:

Innovations in UAV Structural Inspections

Mark has worked for over 25 years in all areas of aviation and transportation law, including litigation, appellate, regulatory and other administrative matters. He is a co-chair of the Dentons US LLP Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) practice and has written and spoken extensively on UAS and aviation matters. Mark has assisted a number of clients in their efforts to obtain approval of their commercial UAS operations, including preparation and filing of exemptions and development of Operations Manuals. Mark has also litigated and advised clients on numerous aspects of international air transportation, including the application of the Warsaw Convention, Hague Convention, Montreal Protocols, Montreal Convention, and International Civil Aviation Organization's International Standards and Recommended Practices. Mark has also represented clients in a number of international arbitrations, including proceedings in Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa. In addition, he is co-editor of the Plane-ly Spoken Blog, which is dedicated to providing up to date news, analysis, and opinion on issues that affect the aviation industry.

Classes:

State Drone Privacy Laws: What Are They and How Likely are You to Break One?

Carmaine is a Emmy award winning television news photojournalist at CBS News in Chicago. She received her B.A. from Columbia College in television production and directing. Her career began in Rockford, IL, at WTVO, ABC 17 in August of 2002. From that point, she moved on to work at WVTV, WB 18 in Milwaukee, WI, in May of 2003. In December of 2003, she accepted a position at the Tribune owned, CLTV/WGN 9 broadcasting back in her hometown of Chicago. In 2005, she started working at ABC 7 Chicago and until permanently moving across town to CBS News Chicago in 2014 when she accepted at full time staff photojournalist position.

Since then, Carmaine has won two individual Emmy awards for Coal City/Washington, IL tornado coverage in 2013, and a feature story, Bill and His Devices in 2016. Carmaine has been nominated and won several talk show/entertainment Emmy Awards for 190 N, Windy City Live and Chicagoing with Bill Campbell and At the Movies with ABC News in Chicago. She has also been nominated twice for individual Emmy's as a news photojournalist with ABC News Chicago.

Some of her career highlights include being asked to be a judge for the National Press Photographers Association(NPPA), "Photojournalist of the Year" in 2015. Along with being asked to judge world wide broadcast news photojournalism work for White House National Press Association in conjunction with National Geographic in February of 2015. Carmaine and Drone Girl Photography have been recently featured in Drone 360 Magazine, DNAInfo Chicago, WGN, Chicago Woman Magazine Movers + Shakers, and Woman And Drones to discuss drones and cinema (includes broadcast, photo, film, real estate and tourism industries).

Panels:

How TV News Benefits from Drones (moderator)

Events:

Women in Drones Luncheon

Justin is owner of Airborne Aerial Photography, a certificated Remote Pilot and an instrument-rated Private Pilot. A professional photographer for nearly two decades, Justin is a recognized industry expert on using #dronesforgood – pro bono projects that create positive sentiment towards UAS technology. His work has been featured in several issues of Professional Photographer, General Aviation News, Drone Deploy and Skyward.

Classes:

Why Pro Bono Drone Projects are Great for UAS and Great for Business

Tom is a Drone Control System Engineer at Intel and is a seasoned engineer with a background in electronics, firmware and autopilot development since 2005. At Intel, he is a co-maintainer of the Intel Falcon 8+ autopilot and works on Intel's next generation drone flight and compute systems. He is also a co-maintainer of ArduPilot, an open-source autopilot.

Prior to that, he led the flight system R&D development at Airphrame and was the firmware maintainer of their ArduPilot-based fixed-wing fleet. Before joining Airphrame, Tom worked at Trimble in the Agriculture division on their ground-based automated farming technologies.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Fresno. He is the founder of Tomtronics LLC, an engineering consulting service, and co-founder of Crash and Burn Solutions which was developing a drone gamification product.

Events:

ArduPilot After Hours

Art is AT&T’s UAS Program Director responsible for nationwide oversight and internal implementation of drones. He is also Director of National Mobility Systems, responsible for development of enterprise data systems. Prior to AT&T, Art served DOD, NASA, DARPA, and other technology-focused agencies as a Command & Control Officer, Air Traffic Controller, Air Weapons Controller, and Mission Control Specialist. Art is a member of the joint FAA/drone industry Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team (UAST), RTCA Special Committee 228 (Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Unmanned Aircraft Systems); and the NATE UAS Committee as well as the FAA’s 2016 mUAS Aviation Rule-Making Committee (ARC) for flight over people, and the Washington Governor’s Unmanned Systems Industry Council.

Panels:

Innovations in UAV Structural Inspections

Jennifer is a partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld. She has represented technology and communications companies and investors for more than two decades. Jennifer is ranked by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in telecommunications, and she has been named a Super Lawyer for communications law. She brings years of in-depth experience in the communications field to her clients in the industry, possessing an insider’s knowledge of the business gained while serving as the vice president and general counsel of a wireless communications company she helped to build and sell to Sprint Corporation. Jennifer is active with industry and the FCC, the FAA, NASA and DHS on spectrum solutions for UAS.

Panels:

Spectrum Solutions on the Horizon for UASs (moderator)

Todd became the Executive Director of the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) in June of 2012.  As Executive Director of NATE, Todd provides overall leadership and vision working in concert with the Association’s staff, Board of Directors, volunteer Standing Committees and approximately 780 member companies.  

Prior to joining NATE, Todd worked for seven years as the founder and principal of a public affairs and communications firm called Full Court Strategies Group, LLC. Todd also has extensive policy experience having served for two terms in South Dakota’s state legislature where he represented a Sioux Falls, South Dakota legislative district in both the State House and the State Senate.

Todd received his undergraduate college degrees from the University of Sioux Falls (USF) with a B.A. in History/Political Science and a B.S. in Exercise Science. He also earned a Master’s degree in Education (M.Ed.) from USF. While at the University of Sioux Falls, Todd also participated in collegiate athletics as a member of the USF basketball team.

Panels:

Innovations in UAV Structural Inspections (moderator)

Rich is the Chief Aviation officer and industrial field inspector for Orbital Engineering. He started flying drones part time four years ago in the film industry for national and local production companies. After seeing the value added in film, Rich leveraged his inspector knowledge and brought the technology to the heavy industrial industry full time.

Rich currently holds a FAA private pilot license as well as a thermal level 1 certificate, and has completed many successful “first flights” for heavy industry clients. Rich currently focuses on flying in confined and dangerous areas as he heads Orbital’s drone pilot training program and also oversees all flight operations. He currently volunteers every summer at the local STEM program teaching children about safe drone use.

Classes:

Flying Drones in Hazardous and Confined Environment Inspections

Justin has BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and Old Dominion University, and recently defended his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia. His doctoral research focused on a novel aerial concept vehicle, called the Tethered Uni-Rotor Network (TURN), which shows great promise for attaining eternal flight. The dissertation addressed the design, modeling, control, and simulation for the system, which incorporated the nonlinear multibody dynamics, and employed a model reference adaptive control (MRAC) architecture to mitigate modeling uncertainty.

Justin presently works as an independent contractor for NASA Langley. A majority of his six-year tenure has been developing NASA’s GL-10 UAV, which is a ten rotor, tilt-wing/tail, transformational flight vehicle. The system has VTOL capabilities with reduced noise characteristics, and then transitions into a forward-flight aircraft which achieves better flight endurance than traditional multirotor platforms.

Classes:

Achieving Eternal Flight Through a Tethered Uni-Rotor Network (TURN) Aircraft
Transformational Flight Vehicles: A Controls Approach for New Aircraft Development

Michael, Assistant Chief of Operations for the Kilgore Fire Department, has been in the fire service for 20 years. He has spent the vast majority of his career training, mentoring, and coaching firefighters. He currently holds the highest level of instructor certification you can achieve in the fire service, and the basis of his college education prepared him to teach in the classroom setting. He currently teaches with the North Texas Fire Academy and trains all of his personnel in the Kilgore Fire Department.

Michael continues to travel to Saudi Arabia where he consults industrial fire departments in order to develop operational plans and teaches special ops disciplines of Rope Rescue and HazMat Response. Michael and his department successfully implemented a drone operation within his fire department two years ago, and has successfully deployed the drone on many real-world responses. Currently, he is working with the Texas Interstate Fire Mutual Aid System to develop drone operations for statewide deployments. Michael has a full understanding of what is needed in Emergency Response and how drones can have a positive impact on Emergency Response.

Classes:

Successful Implementation of Drone Programs in Emergency Response

Maria is an Emmy Award Winning Production Manager for ABC News, Good Morning America. She feels very passionately about using drones to enhance storytelling for journalists and believes they're a great tool for allowing viewers to experience the scope and scale of an event like never before. She loves when drones are used as stedicams, jibs and helicopters and believes they provide the most compelling vantage that captivates viewers.

Maria was responsible for the production of GMA's LIVE drone coverage over the erupting Bardarbunga Volcano in central Iceland, where viewers were able to see the volcano from just 380 feet above. She also pitched, managed the production and live drone produced GMA's "Hidden Worlds, Son Doong" show, from uncharted terrain in a place where there's no map of a route, inside the world's largest cave system hidden deep in the jungle of Central Vietnam, 8,000 miles away from ABC's studio. This show won the News and Documentary category at the 2016 NYC Drone Film Festival. Two of her most recent LIVE productions included using the very latest in drone technology to watch a daring team of elite ice climbers venture down into a vertical ice drop located in the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in Southeast Iceland, where researchers and scientists study formations to understand how the ice melts and sweeps into the ocean.

This past February, she managed another epic GMA expedition, this time LIVE on safari from Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, where two drones and three other cameras were launched on a mission to find animals near extinction. During this amazing journey, the drones came face to face with lions, elephants, rhinos and hippos, all in their natural habitat.  The best part is that before drone technology, showing the world these marvels in such a way wouldn't have been possible. Maria has experienced a feat that's unprecedented in television history.

Panels:

How TV News Benefits from Drones

Events:

Moderator: Women in Drones