Can the Genius NY Accelerator Help Launch Your UAS Startup?

Jonathan Parry is Director of GENIUS NY at The Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, NY.  The Tech Garden is home to Upstate New York's most promising technology startups.  Genius NY is an accelerator program focused on unmanned systems. It will award up to $3 million in grand prizes during its 12-month in-residence business competition. The program will focus on early stage technologies in the category of unmanned systems including hardware, software, and analytics. Jon has more than 12 years experience with start-ups and business development in the UAS industry.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Jon talks about the Genius NY program and how it’s advancing the creation of innovative UAS companies.  Joining Jon is Ryan Pleskach, Founder and COO of Resilienx one of the companies in the current Genius NY program. Ryan shares what its been like going through the accelerator experience and how it’s helped evolve the company.

Who are the DroneResponders and why should we have an interest?

Charles Werner is Director of the DroneResponders, a non-profit organization whose mission is to facilitate preparedness, response and resilience using unmanned aircraft systems operated by public safety organizations around the world.  Charles Werner is the retired Charlottesville Virginia fire chief, a 44 year veteran of public safety and a FAA certified Part 107 remote pilot. He organized and is the Chair of the National Council on Public Safety UAS. He also serves on several local, state and national  committees and has authored more than 120 published articles on public safety.  In 2018, he was selected as Homeland Security Person of the Year by Homeland Security Today Magazine for his work on public safety UAS.  In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Charles talks benefit of creating a grass roots UAS ecosystem to facilitate learning, knowledge transfer and best practices on the use of UAS in public safety.

What can we learn from efforts to promote UAS Economic Development in Virginia?

Tracy Tynan is Director of the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center.  Housed at the Center of Innovative Technology, the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at CIT serves as a unified voice and central source for information and assistance related to the unmanned systems landscape in Virginia. Tracy has more than 15 years of economic and community development and is responsible for instilling an entrepreneurial culture regarding unmanned systems across the Commonwealth. In this role, her main focus is to increase collaboration and communication among the various entities engaged with unmanned systems with the goal of growing unmanned systems economic activity and benefit in Virginia. In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Tracy talks about the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center and efforts to promote UAS economic development. Joining Tracy is Marco Rubin, Senior Investor Director at the Center for Innovative Technology.

What is the fastest growing High School STEM Education Initiative Today?

If you said, Drone Racing Clubs, you’d be spot on.  Just do a web search and you find dozens of articles and videos of high school drone racing clubs springing up all over the country.  Drone racing is a great way to engage students in an exciting new sport, and as they build, code and race drones, they’re learning about physics, electronics, aerodynamics, computer programming and a host of other STEM-related topics.

Ron Poynter, President of OnPoynt Drone Solutions, the nation’s leading supplier of Drone Education Kits and training for STEM Education. In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Ron talks about the rise of high school drone racing clubs, the STEM education value and what the popularity of drone racing clubs mean for the overall drone industry.