The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) named OSU to its Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CEUAS), a body comprising 15 of the best schools in the field. Led by Mississippi State University, off a seed of $5 million in funding, the new center will be a leader in research, certification, and other training initiatives for unmanned aircraft exploration.
Michael Wing, director of OSU’s Aerial Information System Lab, commented on the prestigious honor in a press release.
“It will help us form ties with multiple institutions and partnerships, stimulate both public and private funding, and build on some of our historic strengths in fields such as remote sensing,” he said.
Wing identified wildfire monitoring as an area they will soon be working on, to Oregon’s obvious benefit, and more projects will be outlined when the newly formed center’s representatives meet for the first time, in Washington, D.C.
The program has already started to spread its influence, with 113 corporate partners lined up to participate, and a full research agenda promised by next year.
Corvallis has long been a center of the unmanned aerial vehicle revolution in scientific, military, and civilian entertainment purposes. Our hobbyists are among the world’s leaders in personal drone use, and our university is now recognized at the top of the field as well.
“This further puts OSU and Oregon on the map of leaders in unmanned aircraft systems,” said Wing in the press release.
This is, of course, a map I would like my house removed from. Nobody wants to be spied on by a neighborhood kid with a quadcopter and a lack of boundaries, but otherwise it’s a huge step for our science community.
By Sidney Reilly
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