 This is ThinkTek Hawaii. Community matters here. In noontime, our show, ThinkTek Hawaii show, where the drone leads, Ted Rawlson here, happened to be in our Arctic Circle studio today. The Arctic Circle studio in Fairbanks, Alaska, the most northern reach of ThinkTek Hawaii. And why we're here in Alaska, of all places, is to track down and finally get on the show in the flesh. First time on the flesh, welcome aboard to the show, George Pernie. You've been on the show many times by Skype, but never in flesh. Now we got you today. No, you're in Lanai, but we got you here in Fairbanks. Yes, from Lanai to Vegas to Fairbanks. So last week, if we wanted you on the show, we would have had to find you in Fairbanks. I mean, in Vegas. Yes. Okay, but we got you here. Yes. All right. So anyway, we're welcoming George Pernie on the show here in our Fairbanks, Alaska studio. And one thing I want to point out to the people is if we're doing this outside in Fairbanks, Alaska, there is an outside here and the sun does shine. The flowers do grow and the grass is green. It looks like Hawaii. You get a lot of respect right now, George. I think in two months that won't be the case. No. Okay. And you and I aren't going to be outside here much longer. No. You're freezing already. Anyway, George is one of our most fascinating fiction autos and advocates of unmanned air systems, drones, UAS, RPA, whatever you want to call them, out of one eye. And that leadership that George has expressed is well known, frankly, across the nation and the world in the world of UAS. We'll be speaking today at a conference here in Fairbanks. Yes. And you'll be speaking on what, George, today? We're going to talk about the history of what we've done in Hawaii. And to move things forward, I'm really pushing on that the STEM education UAVs need to be in our schools. That's a missing link to really move things forward. So you're, and you're talking a lot about, when you say school, you really mean not just the kids or the teachers, but also the parents of the families. Yes. So there's a whole STEM continuity here. Yeah. To move UAS, it takes the whole village. We all need to understand, all need to agree that these are tools for good. Watching the hurricane that hit Florida this week, Harvey, there's lots of watching and understanding the events that's happening and how UASs are actually helping communities get back on their feet, protecting first responders, things are really moving. Hurricane Harvey really broke the glass ceiling for emergency response in using UAS. So that's amazing. So how do we take that experience of taking place in Harvey and Irma and other areas and how do we pack it up and bring it to Hawaii and capitalize on it in our own environment? I'll be more than happy to come bring all the emergency responders together, our legislators together, and then give them a brief summary of our travels here from Vegas to Alaska and coming on back. The other one is you folks can watch on my Facebook page. I have videotape from Interdrone to Alaska. All these wonderful sessions and wonderful speakers, very positive, forward-looking and things that our drones are doing good. That's a good point to be made here. The conference that we're both attending here in Alaska is put on by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It's an annual workshop of the UAS users group. And people come together to share information, to develop new information, take things away. We're giving information from Hawaii to their benefit and they're going to give information back to us. Yes, I mean, I met some great people through some of the presentations, gave me new ideas that I had an idea back home and then now I found the missing puzzle piece and I'm going to share it when I get back home and get some things done. I do have to say that one of the rules we have on the show in Georgia is no more than three bright ideas from you in a half-hour session because that's all we can have them. And so you've already hit one. Actually, you probably hit two already. So we're very beginning of the show and you are already at your limit of bright ideas. But I like, let me take you up on the idea you just had. Let's develop that further. Taking the essence of what you're learning about Irma and about Harvey through the interactions in Vegas and through the interactions here, averaging that up in understandable sets that can be delivered in four or five minutes quickly to our legislators. This would be really useful prior to the 2018 legislative session beginning. It is. The key one that I found out is why FEMA sometimes does not pay the monies to help restore a community. I found out that in a contract that when you receive that money, that money has to go back to the community and restore what was destroyed exactly the way it was. What I found out from Texas Fire Department as part of their training, they went out with their drones and they 3D mapped certain areas that they thought they would have problems. Now they take that 3D mapping and they attach it to their request to receive the monies back. They actually have evidence on how to put back what was destroyed. So the idea there would be to take that same idea of drone recording of your particular final, your house, your lay down, your land and get that in the books ahead of time because that's the framework upon which FEMA will generate a payment to you through their insurance system in order for you to restore it. But if you don't have that, then you're not going to get there. You're not going to get there. And the other part is not only FEMA, it's just your local fire department understanding their environment. You know, we have firemen that rotate in and out of the fire station. It's a great map when you show up to shift to look to see any changes, what's new. And it's just a great way for the fire department to be out in the community, flying, mapping and understanding their environment. Okay, this is now a fair bright idea and we're into the first five minutes of the show. We got to shut down. But these are great ideas. So get the fire department involved in the community recording information of the community's benefit. The community will benefit, the fire department will benefit. Everybody will benefit from the pre-recording of what's out there, the current state of the community. And get that on three-dimensional identification through various software routines that attach to the image we collected. And that's a complete new function for the fire department. It is. It actually is a step above. We already, as firemen go on in what we call pre-fire planning buildings and walls and offices. This is just taking it to the next level of detailed information. Now that we know what FEMA is asking when we need to declare the declaration, we now know that we can support our community with this information and restoring it back to what it was. And that would actually lead to us in Hawaii thinking, with the school groups and such, to develop particular software that's useful to express the Hawaii agricultural and architectural and residential structural lay down in a way that would be an application of some of the software topic. But we can have it customized from what you've got. We can actually get some of these keys in. You know, if we look back in our history and our kupuna, they understand the land. And that is what we will do when we go back home is express to the kids that how about creating it with the Hawaiian sense involved. We know our place. We know our location. We know who we are. Maybe you could even start at the school and work out from there from the school in the community and generate these maps that grow and finally connect with each other and have a good depiction of the places where people live where people are affected. And have that as something promoted by the fire department, university help, the school is helping. And this would also lead to a almost a big data framework because someone has to own all this information. Someone has to retain it. And as things change, if there's a new construction going on or a housing development going on or something, or the shoreline advances, whatever it might be, that has to be then be recorded and created. And then you have a picture for all time. Yeah, but you mentioned a good one, Ted, with kids in schools. So you're kids. Yeah, I'm all right ideas. Yes, you are. I'm going to give you that one. The kids in schools that are helping to develop these maps for the fire department, one thing's nice about that. These kids are known by the people that live in their community. They know the children. They ask permission. I can guarantee you that they'll probably say, yes, go ahead and map my neighborhood. Well, we can start with the schools. The schools are almost a no-brainer. Everybody owns a school. The kids own it, teachers own it, parents own it. Everybody gets something out of it. So we start with schools, map them out, and then work our way into the community. Yes, and the best part is that the school framework will help with their advancement and understanding of drones. And then they'll go home and teach their parents and their community that it's not a bad thing. It'll save us in the future. And actually, we can also begin developing policy and doctrine in that regard, because as we do this, there's going to be the recording of information that some might consider private information about your particular property as such. So we have to find ways that it's OK to record that and control the access to it so the fire department can get access to it or the insurance underwriters and people can get access to it. But you don't necessarily want to have free and unlimited access to it. So we have to structure. I won't talk through information security program associated with this. Yep. As long as it's public access, and we do it in the correct manner, and you let the public say, yes, this is what I want. I think with the kids' advocates saying that they created this, I think they'll do it, you know, especially for the long haul and saving lives. I mean, where's the balance in that? I think I would rather go and protect lives. You know, you're going to be talking later on in this video conference either today or tomorrow about community involvement. Bring the sign to me up in that discussion. I think this would be a great way to test it right here with this bunch here. We get people from all over the country here to see what they think about that idea. We'll do it, if I remember. I'll certainly call for your attention. And so let's talk about the other things you're going to be speaking of in this world of community involvement, which is probably the most essential piece. Get the technology. There's no problem there. The issue is getting past all the social issues, the questions and the policy issues, but maybe the involvement is, once again, a mechanism to go forward. If you're thinking about that, you're going to be talking about that today. As soon as I came up, I think the last year at the other conference, I brought up about drone racing. And I told them about all the school programs in Hawaii. This year I'm speaking on one panel about drone racing, how it can help the kids, how it increases their piloting skills. And then they were mentioning that when it's freezing here, they can do really anything. But they're looking at drone racing for indoors, that they can go and race. And they like the technology that now they can race other schools and other buildings through using the internet and race on time. So I'll be explaining a lot on products, what to get, how to get started. And I'm excited that something that I shared last year that they were actually doing it. So you'll be talking about that today. You'll be talking about an internal, inside, in the building, sport activity that can take place in Alaska. In buildings you couldn't otherwise use. And then you can't do anything outside of the scheme. And so promoting a scholastic need on a given reference race course, so you can time it and need something. And the structure of the course won't be the same I would guess from place to place. In such a way that you can have a common scoring system. This would be a whole new domain that hasn't been purchased. No. And then the other part that they like about the racing drone as small as it is, it's the stem aspect of what it relates to. They're having professors that were saying it at the professional PhD level. I understand the words, but for me to speak the words, they were out there. They totally get it. And they're excited about it. I think of all the technology that could be developed through that kind of a for example, in addition to just simply annually flying the racing drone through the visual cognition and the hand installation of the controls, it would be interesting to begin introducing sense and avoid technology into the game for the purpose of speeding up the racing, but also to develop that capability because what racers need in order to finish is not hit something. It's sense and avoid, detect and avoid all those mechanizations of what we call due regard and such would be a great place to develop that. And then it would have a way to work its way out into the world with the environment and economics and coastal erosion and economic use of the way. You can start with the racing side. You stem as the argument and build up, plus you train the workforce. So as a company, as future policemen, firemen, emergency management, your local filmmakers, it just opens up new doors that we really need in Hawaii. And the piece that comes back many times when we speak about business in Hawaii is that this is an aspect of what you might call the aerospace business that has a place to settle down in Hawaii because we're not talking about big air, we're talking about small systems, software rich systems that are small and miniaturized. Equally subject to manufacturing in Hawaii as anywhere else because air shipment can handle them. They're not big parts. So it really becomes a new piece in the economic equation for Hawaii if you do this right. I remember the aerospace conference, a lot of the aerospace folks said that we needed to beef up our educational system and that's why I'm really pushing stem in those schools not after school programs for us other islands. We need to step it up a notch just like drones are moving today. So what we can do is take the emergence of drones and the way you're thinking of it and associate it with the more conventional standard class structure and have a way that stem and the drone component within an enhanced English history path in particular science. So this could become a new connectivity that ties together the educational framework. I believe so. So how do we do that? Is that part of your conversation today? That is part of my conversation pretty much as whole four days here so far. I mean everything always led back to education and educating the youth. Us as adults we have gone as far as we can Some of us are going a lot further than we can. And I hear the same story so I want to break that loop that we're in and add something different and I've been at this for three years and I've always mentioned the kids in my 3-3-3 exemption it was written out of the first exemption holder to actually talk about STEM. That's three years ago but STEM is the key the kids are the key to this future of this industry and just life in general to make Hawaii a much better place. What do we have to do and I say we in a broader sense in order to implement something like that on one eye starting next year Good question After I go home and actually download everything on this two-week, three-week trip then I'll actually get back and going but women in technology really has been holding down the fort with all the schools with all the drone programs in there those teachers are excited for when I get back and then once I can regroup get a conference call we will get on it and start that with the MIL drone racing league for the kids at school So it's still going to be the drone racing league concept as the operational framework and the STEM attaches to that and the subject matter taught in the traditional classifications of education fit that in some way that's what you're going to do once again your brilliance is using a really powerful and compelling argument drone racing as this new connector to myself there's many teachers now that through education, through me telling my stories and seeing that I'm an advocate and really putting our kids first without their help we wouldn't get these programs up and going it is growing by the minute by the days and we're going to be successful and hopefully this legislation season we actually get a comprehensive bill that is written smartly and it's factually and it it'll move us forward that sounds like a strong high challenge and the legislation session begins basically in December and so all advocacy has to be pretty much lined up and replaced by that and that gives us two months until November and December to tie it all together so we're right around the corner we have a lot of positive articles throughout the nation now and in Hawaii that if they I'm coming back with more information with facts that I think we can convince them this is the right bill to put forward when we get it down on paper cool and what in your mind would be the the theme of the bill the theme of the bill would be to adopt FAA's rules in its entirety and create where that is now our foundation and from there we build on the state laws on how the departments in Hawaii and the community will adjust or create anything to benefit or protect the communities in general you know once again George this is a great idea taking the FAA constraints and whatever constraints it might be from state local laws using that as a framework to construct this program so that's where it starts it starts with a totally conforming program rather than some right idea that has to be modified later on to conform so once again I think that's a forced right idea in this first period of time so we're over your limit already and let's think about that in the second half of the show we'll take a one minute break here and come back and talk about that very issue of how the constraints can be used as guidance and as a channel into that future and we'll come back from our break this is Think Tech Hawaii raising public awareness Aloha my name is Mark Schwab I'm the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11am please join us I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii not just law love people, ideas history please join us for Law Across the Sea Aloha guys don't forget to check me out right here the Prince of Investing I'm your host Prince Dykes each and every Tuesdays at 11am Hawaii time I'm going to be right here stop by here from some of the best investment minds across the globe and real estate, finances, stocks, hedge funds managers all that great stuff thank you I'm going to be up here in the Arctic Circle because it is the end of the summer up here and a brilliant great time to be in Alaska with all the green grass and the flowers and Aloha shirts on George Birdie we finally traced him down from when I and found him up here in Fairmax but we're talking about a great vision George has to take this subject we talk about on the show a lot which is drones but normally we talk about a subject like regulations or some technology piece narrow piece it's easy to grab on to you're bringing to us George once again an idea that's so broad that it is difficult A to grab on to in a single single sense and B difficult to resist because it's such a good idea I can restate your idea because I have to restate things a lot when they're complicated so I can understand it myself but we're talking about using the rules and the compliance requirements and the constraints that are being generated that control the entire drone functionality in the drone business use that instead of as a barrier use that as a channel design systems in the school system educational systems using stand-in drones within those constrained channels as a perfectly acceptable way to go forward don't challenge the rules work with them that's it those rules in place not to hinder us but through education you know we will eliminate the ignorance of us not understanding so you break it down that's why we have schools that's what you actually learn about things and understand them and then you implement them and so this would then give a totally conforming way to make drones not violate any of the issues that are currently happening it also teach people how to think about compliance yes is there if there are better ways to generate compliance because we could think about the effect we're generating rather than the rule itself necessarily we could come up with waves of improvement in the way of the structure in the case of drones I mean being on this drone journey for the last four or five years how do you start on this journey because I worked and lived on the night a fire station that only had one man our professional resources come from another island and as I've seen this technology emerge I'm like wow I can see that thing helping me help my community in sending these images and information so I can get more help to actually get these folks off the island and the help they need and so you started with an observation that your function on one eye was passed by this capability and it's been four years and you've actually done some demonstration yep last year 2016 in remembrance of the Molly plane crash of the Long Island planning commission that September 14th of last year we flew the first drone at an airport for a airport tri-annual exercise drill and we we executed our plan as normal and we only added the UAS block and it only benefited the whole incident command system and made it quicker so once again you stayed within the constraints didn't challenge and we worked with them and also dealt with the incident command system and recognized the value it provides and didn't challenge that but worked within it and enhanced the operation at the airport yep the drone actually became a tool a tool that was needed plugged in and gained the information that was needed and we were able to make the right decisions and quicker response so let's take the thought you had at the first half of the show we talked about generating three-dimensional imagery of the surrounds the schools and the recreation of the residential areas in preparation for any performance that might occur let's think about that as being testable on the line you've got the community already working in the right direction you've got the school system working in the right direction the single school single school and so why not think of that as the place to start this out part of our plans for next year one of it is the senior project for the kids that they go out and actually map sections of the island and over time every class that comes up that group who chooses that subject they go out and they do a section and research and over time we'll collect it in a database and stitch it over time and we'll see if it's done so by generations in you'll have the whole island map somehow some way and this could become a leadership item for the rest of the state to see the rest of the country to see for that matter in the proper use within the rules and as an educational piece as a cross-tie between all the departments within the educational system right here on the line or right here in Fairbanks as the case may be but Fairbanks on the line aren't that it could be done here as well but once again Illinois is a great place to start so if we thought about that what do we need in terms of equipment or training or workshop areas or a square footage of resources in order to do that do you think Illinois we'll talk about Illinois City basically basically Illinois City and what I'm looking for is folks in the industry that are experts in their field of anything that these children may need to understand I'll go out and I'll find that person that can come in and visit them what if we did this I'm just imagining here I'm getting like you imagining things that are interesting but what if we had there's several different software sets and vendors that do three dimensional analysis what if we had all of them invite them all out I did I actually met two at Interdome that they're coming up with a school package that will let the kids use it for free and she will actually do classes on YouTube and our kids can watch it and it would be it would be even be possible to have a different software vendor provide software and let the kids let the software vendor learn how it works when it has a kid or the school system and let the kids learn these frankly really advanced methods of analysis that can be executed straightforwardly so what a great laboratory we're seeing if these systems work in the hands of the public so I could think of a couple different vendors for my book maybe something like that and have a almost competition but certainly find out what works and what doesn't work it'd be nice to see the end product of what maps from what companies turn off what and then this would actually be kind of an interesting career path for kids who might want to become software engineers or even UAS designers sort of because they can think of how the UAS ought to be made better you could get everything you could evaluate everything in the whole workflow in this process on Lanai I want to make a shout out to Stacey Purdy and my kids on Lanai just want to say hi from Alaska I'll be home soon and my business partner is Mike and Alien aloha especially little he's running around big smile on his face in that yellow truck we were all over Lanai Purdy two weeks ago since that time you've been in Vegas you've been up in Fairbanks and you're finally going to get back home for the INA this Sunday well that's another piece to mention here about the whole game of UASism or droneism there's conferences every week and you were in Vegas last week you were in Fairbanks this week who knows where you could be next week I wouldn't be in Hawaii all right so an unfortunate sight of this is that there is all this travel required but that's the only way to really share information is to talk to people and get on this show and tell a story about the story I really like the idea you've generated George I really like the idea of Lanai as a test place to evaluate all these things you almost can't fail because if something doesn't work okay let's fix it and it's small enough that you can fix and recover fairly quickly unlike say Chicago where if it failed you would have a serious issue but Lanai as a test I'm saying it again I can understand it myself Lanai and the school system and the population as a test basis performing highly valuable public service in a way that hasn't been performed before but has the motivation as we talked at the beginning of the program because FEMA will pay attention to that people will get benefited by dollars in their bank account should anything ever happen and it's good for all that's the key this way everybody once it gets developed on Lanai then that whole business model software that works could be transferred elsewhere and if people want to vendors want to improve their software go back to Lanai again Lanai becomes a recycling point where all this work happens kids through the STEM program graduate go on to college or I can hire them I can pick the best okay and then of course the public safety on Lanai gets improved in the process so we've in this short half hour here George your brilliant says once again board board that should be a really easy sell to get this program to work with the various vendors we have and certainly the school system want to be very interested in this and I would think even our legal profession would be looking forward to it as a way to test the ideas of how we're going to protect information of this type that has potential values to people who want to misuse it so we have just a lot of factors here all coming together and I'll say once again well I is perfect place to run this stuff out and check it out so with that we've exhausted far beyond our three bright ideas for one George Burry visit here I got a sweetie when I came okay and George Burry finally get you on here in the flesh real on our show and at this point folks we'll take the Arctic Circle in Fairbanks, Alaska and we're going to hustle back inside where it's a bit warmer and we'll see you all next week