Dr. Kevin Corns

kevin.corns@mtsu.edu

Dr. Wendy Beckman

Aerospace

Discipline specific equipment

BAS S214 & 18' enclosed trailer

N/A

N/A

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program is one of the newest and fastest growing concentrations at MTSU. We currently have 55 declared UAS concentration majors in the pipeline with those numbers expected to increase every year. This proposal provides the necessary equipment to support students in our UAS EXL courses AERO 3710, 3720, 3730, and 4710. The UAS industry relies on the latest state of the art technology to acquire and analyze data. To allow our students to compete in the global UAS marketplace and to distinguish ourselves from other programs, students will need to acquire actual real-world operational experience using the latest unmanned vehicles, sensors, and related equipment. With this mind, we are in desperate need of equipment that allows our students to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to differentiate themselves from other UAS graduates. The UAS program is currently constrained by being unable to fly UAS on campus. Given this, our students must operate UAS from remote locations such as MTSU’s farm and other non-university locations. In addition to equipping the new UAS lab on campus, funding will also provide the necessary equipment to modify an existing enclosed trailer into a state-of-the-art UAS ground control station (GCS) for off-campus UAS training and operations. Finally, beyond the course instructional usage of the above described equipment, a modern UAS lab and GCS will also open up opportunities for students to assist in the conduct of UAS related research, for both internal and external projects.