The next edition of “Engineering in Action: How Our Innovation is Impacting Our Community,” a periodic virtual series presented by The University of New Mexico School of Engineering, features a presentation on UNM’s Project VolCAN and the possibilities of unpiloted aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones.
Engineering in Action is a virtual speaker series that puts a fun yet informative twist on current topics in engineering and computer science. “Where Humans Fear to Tread: UNM Robots Take Flight to Study Volcanic Eruptions” will be at 3 p.m. Feb. 25 on Zoom.
Department of Computer Science faculty Matthew Fricke, Melanie Moses and their Project VolCAN team will discuss their recent visit to the Canary Islands, where they were one of the first and only groups to fly a drone into the plume of an active volcano, obtaining samples of the gases of the historic eruption. They will also discuss the highlights of this mission, as well as how the effort grew out of the successful NASA Swarmathon project and what it means for future possibilities of drones.
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UNM researchers receive NSF National Robotics Initiative grant to develop swarms of drones for volcano research