Advancements in UAV Commercialization, Regulation and Safety to Be Featured at Next Generation Drones Conference

News provided by

Knowledge Foundation, a division of CHI

Apr 27, 2015, 11:30 ET


Needham, MA (PRWEB) April 27, 2015 -- The Knowledge Foundation is pleased to launch its Next Gen Drones conference, which will take place June 23-24, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD. The event will address the most advanced research and development issues for UAV commercialization with industry discussions focusing on regulatory updates and safety improvements.

“Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) dominate the worldwide growth of the aerospace industry representing $6.4 billion annually and totaling to an estimated $100 billion over the next 10 years,” said Craig Wohlers, General Manager of The Knowledge Foundation. “This program is designed to bring together the entire ecosystem of the UAV community and we are thrilled to have the key industry speakers within commercial, academic and government organizations presenting on the latest advances in commercialization of UAVs.”

James Williams, Director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS Integration Office, will deliver the conference’s keynote presentation on Wednesday, June 24, sharing the FAA’s latest updates regarding the integration of UAS into the National Airspace System.

In addition to the FAA keynote presentation, Next Gen Drones will consist of three focused program sessions featuring the following thought leaders:

UAV Communications, Navigation and Flight Control – including presentations from:

  • Gregory Huff, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Texas A&M University
  • Rick Lober, Vice President and General Manager, Hughes Network Systems
  • Brian Taylor, Director, UAV Laboratories, University of Minnesota

UAV Research, Development and Commercialization – including presentations from:

  • Yannick Levy, Ph.D., Vice President, Parrot
  • Bruce Quirk, UAS Director, United States Geological Survey
  • John Fischer, CTO, Spectracom
  • Matt Pobloske, CEO, Sensintel
  • Jonathan Ledgard, Director of Afrotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
  • Chang Liu, Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Engineering Department, Southampton University
  • Jeremy Straub, Researcher, Department of Computer Science, University of North Dakota

UAV Integration, Safety and Regulation – including presentations from:

  • Joseph Vacek, J.D., Associate Professor, University of North Dakota
  • Keven Gambold, CEO, Americas, Unmanned Experts, LLC
  • Brett Burton, Tactical Systems Program Manager, Battelle Memorial Institute
  • Andrew White, Program Manager, Defense Research Associates
  • Colonel Andy Pennington, Assistant Professor and Assistant Program Chair, Embry Riddle University
  • Michael Winn, CEO, DroneDeploy

For more information on Next Gen Drones, visit http://www.knowledgefoundation.com/drones.

About The Knowledge Foundation
The Knowledge Foundation, founded in 1998, specializes in providing an unbiased forum that showcases the latest technology and research through the production of highly focused conferences, webcasts and publications.

David Mello, Knowledge Foundation, a division of CHI, http://www.knowledgefoundation.com, +1 781-972-5485, [email protected]