College Ready for DroneUp’s Expansion
(Photo by Karl Greif/unsplash.com)
DroneUp's $27.2 million expansion and creation of 655 jobs in Hampton Roads is an opportunity Virginia Peninsula Community College anticipated when it began drone classes five years ago.
"VPCC offers the only certificate program in UMS (Unmanned Systems) in the area," said Julie Young, head of the College's drone program. "We have students from the Virginia Beach area, Richmond area, Fredericksburg area and Northern Virginia."
The College offers a number of drone classes at its Hampton and Historic Triangle campuses.
"VPCC is clearly a leader in the VCCS," she said. "We have the courses in place to train students for these jobs. We have a fantastic team of instructors that represent many fields, such as engineering, ecology, geology, photography and videography, and computer science. One of our adjunct instructors (Marco Sterk) is nationally recognized in the drone industry."
The College's president, Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon, said it's hard to overestimate the potential of drones.
"Drones are a transformative technology that, we anticipate, will permeate industries in ways we have not yet imagined," she said.
In 2017, Young was part of a Virginia Space Grant Consortium with professors from all 23 community colleges in the state. Out of that, Virginia Peninsula developed a nine-credit UMS Career Studies Certificate. It has since been expanded to 19 credits.
"Students can register for a single course or enroll in all the courses," said Young, who added drones are provided and only one class (UMS 211) has a pre-requisite. "It is possible to complete the CSC in one semester because of the way we stack them as 8-week and 12-week courses."
She also noted manual flight (UMS 111), components and maintenance (UMS 177), and autonomous flight (UMS 211) are offered only at Virginia Peninsula Community College. The majority of classes are held in the evening to meet the needs of working adults, and 19-credit Career Study Certificate qualifies for financial aid and VA benefits.
Virginia Peninsula, formerly Thomas Nelson Community College, has been an area leader in drone education since its program began with seven students in fall 2017. According to Young, it grew by 63 percent from 2019 to 2020, and by 69 percent from 2020 to 2021. She said the College has served more than 250 drone students in its five years.
Earlier this year, the College announced it will offer its manual flight class (UMS 111) at its Hampton campus. It had been available only at the Historic Triangle campus in Williamsburg. A class dealing with surveying and mapping (UMS 193) also is new to the Hampton campus.
"We are adding new courses every semester," Young said. "Our goal is to eventually offer an associate degree, which will transfer to four-year universities."
For more information about the College's drone program, or to register for click here.
ABOUT DRONEUP: DroneUp is a drone services company based in Virginia Beach. It announced Wednesday plans to expand its facility in Virginia Beach, and build a research and training facility for drone operators at Richard Bland College in Petersburg. The company, which was formed in 2016, has grown from about a dozen employees to 300 since January 2021.