April 2019 – Page 2

MNICS: Drop your drones during wildfire

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While drone technology has increased in popularity, the devices also raise concern for aerial firefighter safety during wildland fires, say staff with MNICS.

The 2019 wildfire season in Minnesota has just started and wildland firefighters have already seen evidence of drones flying near wildfires this spring, reports the Minnesota Incident Command System.
While drone technology has increased in popularity, these devices also raise concern for aerial firefighter safety.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Wildfire Aviation program and the Minnesota Incident Command System are issuing a reminder about the use of unmanned aircraft systems.

“They ask the public to drop your drones,” said a news release.
“Most people wouldn’t stop a fire engine from responding to a wildfire,” said Darren Neuman, wildfire aviation supervisor for the DNR. “Flying your drone over or near a wildfire is no different. If you fly, we can’t.”
With increased wildfire activity, the need for fir..

Google affiliate gets approval for drone deliveries

Google affiliate Wing Aviation has received federal approval allowing it to make commercial deliveries by drone.
It's the first time a company has gotten a federal air carrier certification for drone deliveries.
The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration means that Wing can operate commercial drone flights in part of Virginia, which it plans to begin later this year.
The FAA said Tuesday that the company met the agency's safety requirements by participating in a pilot program in Virginia with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and Virginia Tech, and by conducting thousands of flights in Australia over the past several years.
Advertisement Advertise with NZME. “This is an important step forward for the safe testing and integration of drones into our economy,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a statement.
Wing said the approval “means that we can begin a commercial service delivering goods from local businesses to homes in the United States.”
The..

With Dangerous Misuse of Drones on the Rise, Drone Defend…

Los Angeles-Based Security Company Protects Private Sector Against Abuses from Drones

LOS ANGELES (PRWEB) April 23, 2019

By the end of 2019, there are estimated to be 2 million drones sold in the U.S., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That number is expected to double over the next year. One Los Angeles-based security company, Drone Defend, is seeking to make sure that businesses, property, and people are protected against the abuse of these unmanned aerial vehicles.

Cybersecurity specialist Dave Krause is raising awareness regarding the considerable risks that drones are already beginning to pose at a staggering rate and the advanced threats that may occur if drone misuse isn’t taken seriously enough, including risks to public safety.

As a leader in the world of IT for more than two decades, serving the needs of major film studios and Fortune 500 brands, Krause is now working to serve the needs of those in the private sector, who run the risk of having their i..

Microsoft grants $100,000 to UND to fund innovative drone tech project

In recent years, the U.S. state of North Dakota has emerged as what is being dubbed the “Silicon Valley of drone innovation”. Microsoft has now seemingly recognized the importance of the state's efforts towards drone innovation, with $100,000 being granted by the company to the University of North Dakota (UND) Aerospace Foundation. This amount will be used to advance a promising R&D project undertaken by the foundation to develop an autonomous unmanned aircraft system (UAS).

UND will be using the grant to partner up with drone startup Airtonomy. The feasibility of the project design will be demonstrated through the use of Microsoft Azure IoT Edge and AI. The platform will be thoroughly tested by the startup over the course of the next year, with specific regard to autonomous drone aerial imaging capabilities and commercial applications. Benefits from the success of this project could extend to the agricultural, energy, and public safety industries.

Kate Behncken, General Manager..

We-Need-Charles-Bissue-Back-To-Office—Drone-Pilots-Plead-To-President-Akufo-Addo

We Need Charles Bissue Back To Office – Drone Pilots Plead To President Akufo-Addo

22-Apr-2019

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Charles Bissue

It looks like it has been a decade waiting for the truth to be revealed but yet we all look like we have been misled to believe accusations from undercover journalist Anas and Tiger Eye PI.
We the drone pilots of the Inter Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) hereby appeal the President of the Nation, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, to call Mr Charles Bissue back to Office as investigations are expedited.
Our request is to let the President be aware that the absence of Charles Bissue has derailed a lot of progress made in the fight against Galamsey especially in the Western, Western North and Ashanti regions.
Mr President, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and All stakeholders, if we really mean to fight this canker befalling the Nation then we must do it right and be resolute.
When Charles Bissue..

Alumnus’s drone tech company wins $1M state competition

Saïf-Deen Akanni ’90, the founder, CEO and chief technology officer of Sentient Blue, pitches the aerospace engineering company’s proposal during the GENIUS NY finals in Syracuse earlier in April.

An engineering alumnus and his aerospace engineering company have won the $1 million grand prize in the GENIUS NY competition.

The business accelerator award, which is sponsored by New York state and the governor’s office, aims to grow the central New York economy through investments in companies developing unmanned systems software, hardware and analytics. The program is administered by The Tech Garden technology incubator and CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity in Syracuse. Five finalist teams pitched their business plans to a panel of judges and a live audience in Syracuse, New York, earlier this month.

Saïf-Deen Akanni ’90 is the founder, CEO and chief technology officer of Sentient Blue, an Italian company that develops hybrid microturbine engines to increase efficiency ..

Tech jobs

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has released its annual Cyberstates report, providing a detailed look at trends in technology employment. It’s a great way to check how Texas is faring relative to other states in a key component of future growth.

CompTIA uses a measure of technology employment that includes technology workers across the entire economy. By this measure, the US total reached an estimated 11.8 million in 2018, up 2.3% from 2017. Since 2010, national tech employment rose by 18.8%.

For Texas, estimated 2018 tech employment was almost 983,000, second behind California, which is far higher with almost 1.8 million. Texas tech employment in 2018 was up 1.8% over 2017 and a total of 20.9% since 2010. California’s tech employment rose 3.0% for 2018 and 25.4% since 2010. The number of technology jobs added in Texas (17,855) ranked third behind California (51,567) and Florida (18,147). Despite widespread talk of firms moving from California to Texas, the ..

Neuroflight Is the World’s First Neural-Network-Enabled Drone Controller

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Neuroflight Is the World’s First Neural-Network-Enabled Drone Controller
BU researchers are using competitive drone racing as a testing ground to hone AI-controlled flight

04.22.2019

A passion for drone racing inspired Wil Koch, a BU computer scientist, to develop a machine-learning-enabled quadcopter drone controller that could advance technology for AI-controlled vehicles. Photos courtesy of Wil Koch

After Wil Koch flew a friend’s drone for the first time, operating it through “first-person view” where a person wears a headset connected to a video feed streaming live from a camera on the drone, he thought it was amazing. So amazing that he went out that same day and purchased his own system—a video headset, controller, and quadcopter drone, named for the four propellers that power it.

“You put the goggles on and they allow you to see live video transmitting from a camera mount on the drone,” Koch says. It is “by far, the coolest thing..

Taiwan follows US in shutting out China’s top tech – Nikkei Asian Review

A visitor attends a big data demonstration in China's Huainan. Taiwan's restrictions on government procurement will include Chinese servers and cloud computing services.

TAIPEI — Taiwan is widening its crackdown on government procurement of Chinese technology to servers, cloud computing and other services and equipment, which is expected to include Alibaba Group Holding, Huawei Technologies, Lenovo Group and Xiaomi, citing security risks.
The Nikkei Asian Review in January first reported that Taiwan was drafting a blacklist to ban the use of electronics products from telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, surveillance camera maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and others for all government departments, organizations and government-controlled companies.
The official guidelines, disclosed on Friday by the Executive Yuan, Taiwan's cabinet, will include bans on telecom equipment, surveillance cameras, servers, web cameras, drones, cloud-computin..

DJI R&D head dreams of drones fighting fires by the thousands in ‘aerial aqueduct’

While the world watched in shock as part of Notre Dame cathedral burned, few realized the surprising roles machines played in the incident. Sadly, a possible computer glitch may have been responsible for the fire. But technology was also crucial to the recovery efforts. French firefighters used DJI drones to survey the blaze and assess their attack plan — something a Paris Fire Brigade spokesperson said was important in saving the historic building. And a water cannon-manned robot named Colossus also helped battle the raging fire.

When talking about dream future drone applications at a Techcrunch AI and robotics event held at UC Berkeley on Thursday, DJI head of U.S. research and development Arnaud Thiercelin shared his obsession with the idea of fighting fires with drones in what he refers to as an “aerial aqueduct.”

“I have my group of people laughing about it on the internet, but I’ve done my homework, and the idea is to use a fleet of drones — thousands of them working in a const..