New Partnerships and Opportunities!

This has been an exciting week! We recently moved into our new lab space at Sierra Hall, and this week was the grand opening. The opening ceremony was led by the university’s president, Dr. Rush, and included the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center of Excellence for Unmanned Technology.The MOU allows our organizations to share resources, and work together in the vetting and use of unmanned systems in research and resource management.

 

The next day, we went to the CSU Channel Islands Boating center, where we met with several key members of leadership from NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries divisions from all over the United States, along with several industry leaders in unmanned technologies. We discussed the current technologies available both above and under the water, and the future of using unmanned systems for research, management and protection of the nation’s oceans, and coastal resources. There were industry names such as AeroVironment, Boeing, Liquid Robotics, Ocean Aero, and much more. We were able to compare progress, and foster new ideas for moving unmanned technologies forward.