Arland Whitfield wants to encourage students at Syracuse University to spend their free time in an atypical way — flying drones.

Whitfield, a sophomore information management and technology major, is the president and founder of the Skyworks Project, a new campus group focusing on drone technology. He said he started the Skyworks Project at the end of last semester to show what people could do with drone technology.

The Skyworks Project currently uses three drones from Whitfield’s personal fleet in their group projects and flying sessions. Whitfield uses the drones professionally for audio and video air photography — including shots of the Quad at night, such as the Glowstick Celebration on Monday, held in honor of SU’s 144th birthday.

During the weekly meetings, students and community members can stop by to practice flying the drones, which are around three feet across and are manually controlled from the ground, Whitfield said.

Any student, faculty or community member is invited to become a member of the group, he added.

“We want to teach people that these machines are very powerful,” Whitfield said. “Drones can revolutionize a lot of industries.”

Whitfield’s interest in drones was sparked this past summer after seeing a YouTube video, and, after two months of research, he bought his own personal drone. He later added two more drones to his fleet.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the future,” he said. “Drone is the cutting edge technology right now, a few years down the line I will be interested in the next new thing.”

Anthony Rotolo, an information sciences professor, said he agrees that drone technology will leave a long-lasting impression on society.

“The truth is that drone technology is just getting into people’s hands for the first time,” he said. “Civilians now have access to this technology, and through the diversity of imaginations there is an endless amount of practical uses.”

The Skyworks Project has already been able to use drones to film from new, previously inaccessible, perspectives. There is also a group member working on facial recognition software that could be used in drones to recognize and fly towards a specific person, Whitfield said.

While civilian applications of drone technology can influence a variety of industries, from journalism to fire and police rescue, they can also raise privacy concerns, said, Mark Monmonier, a professor of geography.

“Drone technology has moved well beyond the toy stage to the point where they can be seen as operational,” he said. “An operator of a drone could actually collect great data.”

The method of collecting the data is currently being debated within the Federal Aviation Administration, which Monmonier said is doing their best to keep a tight lid on the rapidly advancing drone technology.

With the costs to construct a drone decreasing, more hobbyists like Whitfield are able to take advantage of the new accessibility of drones, Monmonier said.

“There are many people who will feel that a drone flying above may infringe on their right to privacy,” he said. “There are also liability issues.”

Whitfield said it is clear that any type of technology can be used for nefarious purposes.

One analogy he said he uses when asked about the privacy concerns of drone technology is the use of the Internet, where some argue privacy rights are taken away when companies like Google and Facebook mine search data history to use for advertising and marketing.

“People still use the Internet all the time despite this, because the positives outweigh the negatives,” Whitfield said. “There is so much good that we can use drones for, there is so much more to accomplish with this technology.”

Published on March 25, 2014 at 1:06 am

Contact Jen: jbundy@syr.edu