Friday, January 30, 2015

3D Robotics Brings Drones Into The Schoolroom

Are unmanned aerial vehicles the next hot ticket in education? San Diego-based consumer drone developer 3D Robotics is hoping to bring its unmanned aerial vehicles to school, with a new program it launched Thursday called DroneEDU, saying that it will offer free and discounted hardware and support to the classroom. According to 3D Robotics, the new program is aimed at assisting students, teachers, and schools in deploying their own, unmanned aerial vehicles for learning and STEM exploration. 3D Robotics said it is already sponsoring several university UAV program, including Stanford and UC Berkeley, and also hopes to help bolster drone usage down to the grade school level. 3D Robotics says it is now North America's largest personal drone maker. The company is backed by Richard Branson, Mayfield, Foundry Group, True Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and SK Ventures.