CLAREMORE, Okla. — Rogers State University is offering a new degree program, involving unmanned aircraft, or drones.
The Department Head of Technology and Justice Studies at RSU says with this degree, students have a wide variety of job opportunities. The degree is a Bachelor of Technology in Unmanned Arial Systems and takes about four years to complete.
Based on the degree, RSU is now part of the Federal Aviation Administration's UAS CTI program.
"What that essentially says is Rogers State University is an educational hub where we can provide the training necessary for safe drone flight," says Curt Sparling.
Sparling says the degree is taught in phases. The first is learning how to fly a drone. Students will get their FAA Part 107 license, which is comparable to a driver's license.
"Then, we quickly ramp up into designing, building, and flying our own personalized drones and that goes through 3D modeling, printing and basic electrical engineering," he said.
From there, students learn data collection and data interpretation from the information the drone collects. Sparling says with the use of drones becoming more common, job opportunities for students are growing. Opportunities that don't just involve drone videography.
"We have drones now with infrared capabilities," says Sparling. "Not only can they see hot spots without going into the building, there's an opportunity the drone could actually see if an individual is inside the building."
Drones can also be used to survey land, and conduct line inspections. He says students can collect data with a drone that would typically take a couple of days on the ground, within just a couple of hours, in the air.
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