Thanks to support in the form of a three-year, $1.33 million grant from NASA’s University Leadership Initiative, researchers at North Carolina State University will launch a project that seeks to research and develop high-performance communications, networking and air traffic management (ATM) systems, which includes navigation and surveillance for UAS, as well as manned aircraft. ​The NC State Group will work with David Matolak from the University of South Carolina (USC), Hani Mehrpouyan from Boise State University, and Benjamin Boisvert from Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp) to develop “multi-band radio designs, “millimeter wave” (mmWave) propagation measurements/modeling, navigation and surveillance techniques for manned/unmanned aircraft, and ATM simulations.”

Cloud County Community College will become the first college in Kansas to adopt the Unmanned Safety Institute’s (USI) drone curriculum, as the school will reportedly use the curriculum as a “precursor to drone operations involving renewable energy assets.” The UAS courses are also a part of the school’s Precision Ag program, and could be used to support other careers, such as those in mass communications, or that of a substation technician.

This fall, 50 airports will begin providing Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), which will give UAS operators the ability to “apply for instant, digital approval to fly in U.S. controlled airspace using the same applications they use for flight planning and in-flight situational awareness.” Currently, FAA authorization is required for flights in controlled airspace, at certain times of day, or near sensitive locations. Authorization requests are subject to long waiting periods and labor-intensive manual approvals, which can add more time to, or entirely halt, the process of trying to fly UAS commercially.

The Nevada UAS Test Site and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) are partnering with a New York based training and education provider called SkyOp LLC, to offer UAS training programs and courseware to the West Coast. Las Vegas will serve as the West Coast affiliate training center, where the next generation of the workforce will be prepared and trained so that it can answer “future demand for highly specialized drone-enabled employment opportunities.” “UAS workforce development is the engine that will grow the Nevada UAS Industry,” says Dr. Chris Walach, Director of the FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site.