Carleton offered a short professional course on drones in partnership with Cornwall, Ont’s. Nav Canada earlier this summer.
Drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), are aircraft that can navigate without human control or by remote. The course, which was held from June 20 to 24, helped its participants grasp how drones can be used to solve problems and raised awareness of drone use regulations.
“[Drones] are not going away. If anything, you’re going to start seeing more of them,” said Ron Singer, the national manager for media relations at Nav Canada. “It’s like computers and the internet, it takes a while for the regulations to catch up and they certainly will catch up, so it’s important to have something like this.”
Adam Landry, communications officer for Carleton’s engineering department, said there are many different kinds of drones.
“You can have some that are you know as big as a person. You can have some that can fit in your hand,” he said. “Then there’s the UAVs that have fix point wings that look like an airplane but there’s just no one inside it and those are great for going long distances on minimal energy.”
Drones are used to transport goods and can also help humans reach remote or dangerous areas. Singer said they can be used for filming in addition to their potential uses in the real estate business and search and rescue operations.
The short course was held at the Nav Centre in Cornwall and covered UAV types, their flight principles, opportunities, challenges and drone regulations. Singer said the majority of the registrants were professionals working as commercial operators or in the transport industry.
Landry said he is unsure whether the fall course will be offered as a credit for Carleton students. He added it would depend on the agreement reached between Nav Canada and Carleton’s Faculty of Engineering.
He said new job opportunities are opening up in the UAV industry and courses on drones could help prepare young people for the future.
While the course in June was geared more towards professionals in the aerospace industry, Carleton engineering student Uty Akpan said she would definitely take the course if it were offered.
Akpan added she recently joined the UAV club at Carleton, a group that focuses on building their own UAVs and entering them in an annual completion. She said she took a similar course this past year but found it to be difficult due to the large amount of information it covered, and felt an introductory course focusing specifically on drones would be more beneficial.
“I would definitely want to take [the course],” Akpan said.
There are plans to offer this course again in the fall. If offered, Landry said Nav Canada and Carleton will likely expand it and make it more comprehensive.
“Everything will evolve of course and it’s going to be another stepping stone to increasing this kind of programming in the future with Nav Can,” Landry said.
