The USNDA's mission is to rapidly and responsibly accelerate the U.S. drone industrial base by advancing drone research, prototypes, and proliferation of practical applications across multiple industries with student and faculty teams via academic and technology partnerships.
The USNDA plans to establish a regional Collaborative Capstone Research Laboratory (CCRL) by 2027 on the campus of Full Sail University with a focus on experimentation in small drone, counter drone, and drone swarming prototypes. The CCRL will be open to Central Florida's 100,000+ students and 10-plus colleges and universities in the region for collaborative academic participation. The USNDA will host an innovative web of challenges, hackathons, concept development summits, and experimentation competitions, awarding cash grants and academic scholarships, focused both on component development (hardware, software) and field performance.
"With real-world education at the heart of our university's mission, in addition to problem-solving utilizing emerging tech innovations, Full Sail University is honored for our campus to house the official National Headquarters for the United States National Drone Association," said Full Sail University President, Garry Jones.
"The USNDA selected Full Sail as a strategic partner and headquarters for this ongoing initiative due to the university's reputation as an educational leader in the various fields of emerging technologies, and their unique capstone portfolio model that allows students to focus on real world problem-solving," said the USNDA Provisional Committee in a joint statement.
"The future of drone technology is continuing to emerge and evolve as a leading-edge technology into areas including national security and defense, humanitarian efforts, environmental protection, public safety, and even more advanced applications for broadcast & production, with its growing impact on the world being shared by us all. Our aim through supporting the development of this Florida based, collaborative academic network is to provide an opportunity for the brightest young minds in the nation to contribute to the acceleration of a U.S. Drone industrial base and demonstrate the art of the possible future," said Florida Representative (R) David Smith and Florida Representative (D) Tom Keen in a bipartisan, joint statement of support. "We are proud of the opportunity for the State of Florida and its technology corridor to lead by example, convening shared interest to advance innovation rapidly and responsibly for not only our State, but our Nation."
In addition to the CCRL initiative, the USNDA also announced the date for the National Drone Conference™ and National Drone Games™, to be hosted at Full Sail University on December 2, 2024. The agenda, speakers, and guidelines for participation will be announced with registration opening in September, 2024. Student and faculty teams will have the opportunity to present prototypes and concept briefs for funding to compete in the National Drone Wars™, occurring on in May, 2025, at a private testing & evaluation location to be announced at a later date.
About the USNDA:
The USNDA is a 501(c)3 non-profit collaboration consolidating multiple stakeholding industries and partners with shared interest in emerging drone applications ranging from humanitarian aid, public safety, and environmental protection to national security and defense. Formed by an initial provisional committee, the formal Board of Directors will be announced in the fall of September 2024.
The USNDA is designed with year cycles to: (1) collate problem sets and solution requirements across multiple industries at the National Drone Conference (™); (2) identify, design and prototype solutions at the National Drone Games (™); (3) test in real world scenarios at the National Drone Wars (™).
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About Full Sail University:
Full Sail University is an award-winning educational leader for those pursuing careers in entertainment media and emerging technologies. Founded in 1979, Full Sail has received numerous accolades throughout its 45-year history, including being a 2024 "Top Game Design School" by The Princeton Review, named to the "Top 25 Undergraduate UX/UI/HCI Schools and Colleges in the U.S." list by Animation Career Review, named One of Top 3 Best Cybersecurity Education Providers by 2023 Globee Cybersecurity Awards, a "Best IT Education Provider (Gold Globee Winner) by the Globee Awards for Technology, and was featured among the "TopRank: Cyber-Security/AI Degree Programs in Florida" by Florida Trend Magazine. In addition, Full Sail is one of the few institutions to receive the Apple Distinguished School Award for 2022–2025.
Full Sail University is a graduate and undergraduate degree-granting institution offering on-campus and online degree programs in areas related to Art & Design, Business, Film & Television, Games, Media & Communications, Music & Recording, Sports, and Technology. With over 100,000 graduates worldwide, Full Sail alumni have worked with notable companies including NASA, Apple, Google, SpaceX, Microsoft Corp. and more, in addition to contributing their talents to countless award-winning projects with individual recognition including Oscar®, Emmy®, Grammy®, Addy® and The Game Award honors.
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SOURCE United States National Drone Association
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