As drone usage continues to grow exponentially, 2019 stands to be another busy year for the IGIS drone training program. We are pleased to announce two offerings of our popular 3-day comprehensive drone mapping short course, both of which will be held in Monterey County with two outstanding collaborators.
From April 9-12, 2019, we'll be teaching the second annual Drones for Biologists workshop at the gorgeous Hastings Natural History Reservation in collaboration with The Wildlife Society Western Section and the UC Natural Reserve System. This training event specifically caters to the interests of natural resource managers, and includes special sessions on using drones for wildlife research, UAV regulations from the US Fish Wildlife Service, and updates from the CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife. New for 2019, participants will have an option to stay for an extra two days to conduct a mentored research project (can you detect turkeys with drones?), that we plan to collectively write up and submit for publication. If you've never been to Hastings, it's a beautiful 2,500-acre oak woodland reserve in the Carmel Valley with onsite accommodation and training facilities. Registration is now open, with discounted rates for TWS members and UCANR employees.
The week of
June 17, 2019, we'll be offering our third round of DroneCamp. This is our flagship drone training event, and like previous DroneCamps, the 3-day curriculum will cover an overview of drone mapping technology, regulations, mission planning, flight practice, data processing and management, and analysis with GIS software. This year, we're thrilled to be collaborating with the
DART Consortium, a public-private-nonprofit partnership in Monterey centered around developing the
UC Monterey Bay Science and Technology Center (
UCMBEST), establishing a drone tech R&D park at the former Fort Ord, and developing programs at the UC Santa Cruz
Fort Ord Natural Reserve. To add icing on the cake, DroneCamp 2019 will merge seamlessly into the DART Drone Symposium on Friday June 21. The symposium will feature sessions from industry, leading researchers, and service providers. If you've ever sought a truly comprehensive week of drone mapping instruction with updates from the cutting edge, you'd be hard pressed to find a better pairing than DroneCamp plus the DART Symposium. Registration for both events will be open in February.
We're thrilled to be providing these two trainings on drone data collection for the public, and even more thrilled to be working with collaborators who complement our areas of expertise with deep dives into technology developments, research, and policy. To use drones effectively involves navigating some deep waters, these workshops will save aspiring drone users vast amounts of time, money and painful mishaps. Hope to see you there!
