We hosted our 4th week-long Summer Drone Academy from July 17th to July 21st.

This program was made possible through the generous sponsorship of Amazon Fulfillment Technology and Robotics, whose support played a large role in the program’s success. This was originally a Brown University initiative under the direction of Stefanie Tellex and is currently being brought to commercialization with the help of Duckietown and support of Amazon.  Thanks to both Brown University and Duckietown representatives who were on-site to help administer the course. 

Students hailing from the Greater Boston area, alongside graduate students and professors from Howard University in Washington DC attended the sessions. They had the opportunity to build, program and fly drones. The students participated in lectures and workshops with different industry professionals from around the Boston area including several MassRobotics resident startups.

This included:

  • Soldering workshop with Rich Breault, CEO, Lightspeed Manufacturing
  • Lecture with Andrea Daniele,  Chief Technology Officer, Duckietown
  • Lecture with Stefanie Tellex, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brown University.
  • MassRobotics overview with Joyce Sidopoulos, Co-Founder and COO
  • An Amazon Fulfillment Technology and Robotics overview with Amanda Rodrigues Smith, University Programs and JEDI Partnerships

Each day, a different resident startup stopped by the academy and provided students with a company overview and live demos!  

This included: Cleo Robotics, Tatum Robotics, GreenSight, Maglev Aero and Nextera Robotics. The students had the opportunity to hear them discuss their different projects and career paths. 

On friday, the students were able to see a working drone, created by our intern Ari.  

“It was an inspiring experience knowing we built something that is part of the recent cutting-edge technology. It felt good to know I’m part of something big!” – Mirudulaa Suginathan Yamini

“This experience really exposed us to new opportunities as well as teaching us many new skills such as soldering that will be useful in the future.” -Spiros Gerogiannis

“I learned that we cannot be bound down by simple limitations, except we cruise and plow through. The limits’ the sky, really.” – Isaiah Bell

The students were then able to bring their drones home and fly them on their own time. We hope to see everyone flying their drones during our Robot Block Party this September! 

We would once again like to extend a sincere thank you to Amazon Fulfillment Technologies and  Robotics for their contributions, as well as Duckietown and Brown University. We also wish to express our gratitude towards all of the lecturers who helped to make this week such a great learning experience.

Stay tuned for more news here.