Thursday, April 25, 2013

Ohio UAS Conference

This week I represented my employer, ERAU-Worldwide, as an Academic Panelist at the 2nd annual Ohio UAS Conference hosted by Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH. The conference provided an opportunity for "key officials and representatives from both government and industry" (Ohio UAS Conference, 2013, para. 2) to meet with members of academia for collaborative discussion of UAS integration, access to the National Airspace System, research opportunities, and stakeholder needs. At the conclusion of the Academic Panel, Mr. Michael Toscano, the President and CEO of AUVSI and an audience member, took the opportunity to address the crowd and stress the importance of what ERAU is doing to support community outreach and education through our recent partnership with the Real World Design Challenge (RWDC). In his impromptu address Mr. Toscano related how he served with important members of Government and industry, including Mr. Jim Williams of the FAA UAS Integration Office, as judges for the RWDC high school competition. He commended the awarding of a $50,000 ERAU scholarship to each member of the winning team along with my and ERAU's involvement in UAS education.

While attending the conference I also had the opportunity to listen to speeches, briefings, and panel discussions from the following stakeholders in the UAS community, including:
-Michael Toscano, CEO and President AUVSI
-Jack Blackhurst, Director of Human Effectiveness Directorate, AFRL
-Maj Gen Edward J. Mechenbier (USAF Ret), SAIC
-Dyke Weatherington, Deputy Director, Unmanned Warfare, USD AT&L/UW
-Steve Pennington, Director of Bases, Ranges, and Airspace, USAF
-Janis Pamiljans, VP for UAS, Northrup Grumman
-Jim McGrew, Business Development, Unmanned Systems, Boeing

REFERENCES
Ohio UAS Conference. (2013). About. Retrieved from http://www.ohiouasconference.com/pages/about.html



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