Integrating Drones into Geospatial Education to Enhance STEM Skillset for Students at Fayetteville State University

The Department of Government and History at Fayetteville State University (FSU) writes to request funding to acquire multiple advanced drone systems to enhance geospatial STEM education at FSU. FSU is a historically black university focusing on the education of African American students in the southeastern North Carolina area. FSU is recognized as a United States Geological Survey / National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Center for Academic Excellence. Moreover, the Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) program at FSU is growing and is accredited by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. While FSU is equipped with teaching laboratories and requisite geospatial software, the drone systems requested in this proposal will help to significantly strengthen the geospatial teaching, research, and collaboration capabilities at FSU. The requested drone systems include one Albris mini drone, four DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2, and two DJI Matrix 600 Pro airframes together with the Geodetics GEO-MMS LiDAR VLP-16 sensor system, the Headwall Standard Hyperspectral sensor system, and the DJI Zenmuse XT2 sensor. These drone systems will significantly enhance the teaching of geospatial courses including Cartography, Introduction to GIS, Introduction to Remote Sensing, and Applied GIS that are required in the GEOINT and geography curricula. The students will use these drones to plan, collect, and analyze real-world geospatial data. For example, they will fly a drone to acquire multiple overlapped aerial photos of the City of Fayetteville and create a detailed 3D model of the city to facilitate the examination of a new highway or the review of current use of property and zoning and land use plans. The goal is to expose students to modern geospatial technologies and data that they will need in real-world geospatial jobs. Practicing and experiencing drones that are up to the industry standards give the students confidence that is crucial in the competitive world to make them comfortable in situations that are challenging but compelling for student success. The possibilities of demonstrating the practical applicability of drones and their sensors are limitless and not restricted to just upper level classes. They are also not limited to GEOINT and Geography students. In fact, due to their rich applications, drones can be introduced to other disciplines to demonstrate, and thus promote, GEOINT and geography as a discipline among current students as well as prospective students who are still thinking about career choices. The drones that are requested in this proposal go beyond the classroom to create an environment and scenarios that can be used to teach audiences of all ages about GEOINT and geography as a discipline and how drone data are beneficial in our daily life.