 think tech away civil engagement lives here it is noon hour Thursday folks Ted Ralston here in our think tech studios downtown Honolulu momentarily and electronically transposed to Waimanala with the on a Raycom cornerwind day there was a Makapu in the background anyway today joining the studio by none other than Josh Meadie the coordinator of our unmanned air systems work at UHRL and if the two of you if you and I are here that means that's only half the group's working right now right yeah that's correct a thanks for coming on Josh and taking a bite out of the day here in fact this is about the only time we actually get to sit back and talk about things that aren't associated with our daily pursuits and March was a complicated and exciting month and April's turning out to be a lot different right keep building and building yeah sure does and we are and joined in absentia actually by none other than Dwight Takano from our our executive offices at UH you can't make the show but we wanted to put this particular program on because of something that Dwight inspired we want to thank Dwight very much for that and we'll explain that more to our folks here as time goes on but what we had and Josh was a big part of it and Dwight created it was a drone boot camp held at the University of Hawaii Les Marocami Stadium two weeks ago this Friday yep and this was something that came out of the blue if Dwight Takano's mind is considered blue but it was a brilliant idea and it was so well executed I think so well valued drone boot camp what were your thoughts going in Josh when you first heard Dwight say let's go do a drone boot camp what did you think so so this all started because I was telling Dwight about these UH centric Friday fly days were having on campus Friday fly days Friday Friday Friday Friday fly days yeah no food people still hungry while we were flying okay yeah food comes after okay especially for Dwight and then so I was telling her about these Friday fly days we're having at UH and he kind of all of a sudden clicked and said let's open this up to the public we have to have everyone else also understanding all these rules and regulations too and so I immediately spun into a bit of a panic trying to understand exactly how many people were going to be there what was going on what we're gonna do exactly yeah how we're gonna control it yeah a lot of different questions that had to be answered but you know Dwight did an amazing job of kind of setting everything out straight understanding that what you know kind of the what the method was for all this madness and actually turned out to be a really great event let's take a look at some b-roll you got there Ray that might show what this was all about there we go so I think we can talk over this but what we have here is this and video taken by one of the local TV stations and it was showing people gathered around talking sharing information drones on the table equipment pieces how you assemble them the very basic rudiments bootcamp for sure right this was track bootcamp yeah and so the the main purpose for this was just for folks that had that had bought drones for this for Christmas or for you know Valentine's Day whatever you were buying drones for and and the people were just too afraid to take them out the box and fly and they didn't know where to go they were afraid of breaking them they used to have someone sitting there next to them helping them essentially just watching them set this stuff up and having the confidence kind of building that confidence as they do that I certainly learned what that was all about and I didn't really understand till it was over what our intention really was even though I went through a couple of panning meetings and discussions but exactly right a lot we deal with these all the time so to us it's not a big deal second nature take them apart put them together we have Noah who can take them far apart so if you can't put them back together that's your desire yeah but and we use them all the time so to us it's like second nature perhaps but I can under certainly understand how other people who've not had that opportunity are going to be a bit skittish not quite sure what this thing does or what what button to push or what order to push them and so I was struck by the group that I was assigned to work with a couple different groups that they basically want to know how do you take it out of the box what do you look at to see if all the pieces of there where do you put the batteries how you determine if the batteries are good and then when you start thinking about flying what do you have to think about when you get ready to commission this thing to go into the air and launch it yep so what were your thoughts on the interactions you had with folks I thought it was great I mean especially in the beginning you know we would go and we brought everyone down to one of the dugouts and had a TV screen up and we're showing them before we even took the drones out the box it was illustrating you know some of the rules and regulations to the FAA and you know throughout the state and understanding where you can you cannot fly and why you can I cannot fly and so really getting that message across you can see people's minds clicking and like understanding the importance of understand of learning where you can and cannot fly in terms of no temporary flight restrictions and all that kind of stuff sorry that was kind of the most rewarding part for me in addition to actually saw a couple of photos just then of teaching these really young kids how to how to fly these these aircraft I mean you know these kids grew up playing video games from when they're three years old so having you well actually I did not I grew up in a time way before video games were even invented yeah that's true so I definitely have a little bit more experience playing video games now but I mean these kids it was it was second nature you know he was out there flying that thing with the utmost confidence you know he was looking at the screen like it was second nature to him so it was that was also very very rewarding and only imagining you know where these kids are going to be in 10 years from now what we know what time of technology they're going to be dealing with and what kind of good they'll be using these kinds of aircraft for that's pretty cool I had a similar reaction when we had the TV screen going and the basic fundamental rules I think that was the first time a lot of those people that ever even heard or understood that there are a set of rules and there's a place you can go even as complex as it might be to find more and the kind of questions they were asking like what is a notum how do I file a notum what phone number do I call those are really good questions and I think we do all the public that attended a report back as we said we would so I actually I haven't actually sent them out in email so maybe they're listening today but so I I helped because through my job at UHARL I put together a website www.uas.huayuas.com right can you get that up on the screen I'll also make sure they have the right URL in there I can give it to you guys later but part of that is a resources page that shows you all the different locations to the FAA website and various other you know AMA websites showing you where you can look all this stuff up and one of them is a link onto where to file a notum and even an instructional video of how to file a notum it's great there's a video that explains how to do that yeah in fact videos like these two or three minute videos they're all over the web they're pretty cool yeah very informative very instructive if we could maybe keep pulling them together in terms of understanding airspace for example understanding class B versus class D airspaces with those videos out there there's work that AMA has there's work that worked in how aircraft owners and pilots Association has done so we can become that center point collecting and then displaying that information making available to people but I'll tell you again I guess can't go I can't I can't thank Dwight enough for having thought this problem up and then thought the solution up at the same time and once again it just struck me that we're providing very basic essential information as we should be doing as part of our educational outreach and giving people a comfort place so they can turn to that someone else has been there before and we can answer questions the kind of questions I was asking what I found myself doing was asking them questions about how they're going to be ready which way is the wind blowing when this thing launches which way is it likely to drift is there some problem that probably downwind what's downwind how do we think about what's downwind how do we think about what happens if there's a failure in the GPS or some other issue so getting to think about which way the wind blows are you prepared have you got the primary flight information understood have you got the secondary information on the tablet is that available you understand what's going on there do you understand what to do when there's a problem those are really essential discussions and it was cool I didn't have to do any lecturing or talking I simply asked them what they're doing about it and they tell me what they're thinking about and we found some issues and it was it was just I think they know someone they can talk to now should they ever have a question yeah exactly minute it's all the stuff that we go through in our heads before we take off but it's just kind of socializing the idea in their heads because they haven't had that experience I mean I know especially for me personally it took me you know a couple of tries before I would actually be able to go fly competently and you know understand all those environmental impacts and what would happen you know if GPS cut out and all those situations whereas you know all that information that we already have with us we can impart on them and they can you know start off flying you know a couple of steps ahead you know to be in with which is really cool. So the question we have to involve Dwight in this question and the answer to it is how do we extend this beyond just that one-shot event at UH which we probably had what 90 people on the attendance that something like that because you've got schools all over the all over the state we've got schools that are in the various airspace areas schools that are remote from airspace so there's areas where there's different considerations that have to apply so it would be very rewarding and very useful and very effective if we could take this show on the road rather than make people from Wailua come into UH we go to Wailua and repeat the thing out there in fact there could probably even be a classroom version it doesn't even have any flying in it just very issues we talked about at the very beginning get the thinking going so of course you and I have a lot of free time so we can we can take on these actions we don't have any proposals to do we don't have any FAA IPP to worry about we don't have our own environment schedules wide open it was wide open so we could to take this on but we should really find a way to have Dwight help us figure out how to make this a university extension of some kind yeah and the important part is you're mentioning is we have to have other folks other instructors that are competent that can you know be able to lecture with us and so we have a pretty good base of a group of people that we can reach out to for this so cool idea then taking that thought for a minute if we took this and courted down to the absolute base minimum that could occur in a classroom as part a and part b would be a classroom plus the field sometimes you may not be able to get access to the field sometimes you could have a liability issue you may not have permission so the weather is today yeah as you know very well yeah and so a classroom version and a classroom plus version even a tent using the micros are our yeah micros or our DNLR tent and operate in outside in the tent for example but if we could sort of package it that way and then take that show on the road and have somebody at it at various the various schools become competent at that level and they can carry on locally we've had a first session as yours pretty says become the UAS champion of that school yeah exactly that would be and we got guys like Derek Estabillo out in at Castle would probably jump on that we've got lots of people who would be very interested in doing that of course they have a lot of free time to like you and I have but I think that's really an obligation we need to take on we figure out how to make that happen and with this activity taking place of the capital on resident joint resolution 143 which is going to put together a working group that try to figure out how to work all these problems of UAS in Hawaii this actually fits into that fairly well I think we all know education is going to be the number one element here that we need to get the word out absolutely I mean I need even going back to talking about the success of this of this you know first event you know I'm getting emails over the past couple weeks asking oh no I missed it I'm so sorry is there going to be another one you know can we get this going again on a whole so we got to go do it again yeah for sure and we still have to do your in internal UH Friday Friday Friday that's right well I so I'm actually planning one for next week next week okay all right so yeah anyone that's listening that wants to come out to UH next Friday we'll be having it now I'll send out an email to the folks that are we gonna include the folks who came to the to the bootcamp so I want to try and keep these the Friday Friday one specific to UH just because it's a little bit of a small crowd it doesn't have to involve other people taking a lot of time logistically it is it's a little bit more of a kind of a pop-up event but in terms of having a you know open to the public I think every six months we're gonna start doing the large-scale ones at Les Morocari and then you know starting to expand out to these other schools as things go on as well I would think once a month wouldn't be we could probably handle once a month to never run out of people to deal with on a Wahoo alone yeah every other two weeks Friday fly day and then interstice with that they won for the public that's gonna my my wide open schedule is very easy my open schedule's got used up right yeah and we got to get some other people that on this as well yeah but the whole issue of education you know we just had discussion with the FAA this week and there's apparently a lot of people who don't understand certain of the rules or there for some reason are having errors with their equipment or problems of some kind and beginning to generate potential interactions with air traffic so part of our educational campaign has to be aimed in that direction I so I think the issue is more than just the the the getting to know you and the fun aspects of this thing there is some some serious overtones here that we have to work on and the education is the first line of defense in getting that to be correct yep absolutely and that was that was the goal of this bootcamp was just the initial understanding that there is something out there that can you know help you fly safe and fly smart and if you do need some more resources you know what to contact us you know how to go online and go find this other stuff we don't have people watching this how do they get a hold of you so they can sign up for the next one I'm gonna give me your email address I'll give back to yours though let's put it up there yeah so it's levy josh at arl.hawaii.edu so you do it backwards Levy Josh yeah because I'm not the only Josh Levy apparently so Levy Josh at arl.hawaii.edu .hawaii.edu okay so that's how to get a hold of you and become either a contributor a participant or just asking questions absolutely to our drone bootcamp that we should call it the Dwight Tocano drone bootcamp to make sure it has recognition as to where it came from and I again I just can't imagine having thought of this myself because it's something we just don't come across we thank Dwight over and over again for having the audacity to ask the question and the tenacity to put it together and deal with all the issues he had to deal with but not also thank the other UH staffers who took care of publicity and getting the stadium available Glenn Nakayo down there to stay and making it available to us time and again and then the other folks who came from industry Mike Amotos and kind of Jenaiz came and Mike Elliott Mike Elliott came and Kevin from the consulting firm we had a couple of consulting firms in fact one of the discussions we had right there was hey why don't we take these guys who are using drones formally and professionally and form some kind of a who is some kind of a collective that they can get together and have a place to exchange information of the type they need yeah in order to professionally succeed in making good use and and winning hearts and minds with this capability yeah so I think that's another obligation we have in our free time our spare time to take up and go make that happen as well yeah every time I come on here Ted it's just more and more stuff on my list to do that's good and if if I got like Greg Nakano was on read have you been more there's just no end of bright ideas that that that fall out of the table here so let's talk after the break here let's talk about again maybe some real serious thoughts about how we extend this and additional content to add to it hello I'm Keeley Akina and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on think tech Hawaii's Hawaii together in Hawaii together we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together working together for a better economy government and society so I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on think tech Hawaii broadcast network join us for Hawaii together I'm Keeley Akina Aloha hello I'm Dave Stevens host of the cyber underground this is where we discuss everything that relates to computers that's just kind of scare you out of your mind so come join us every week here on think tech Hawaii calm 1 p.m. on Friday afternoons and then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube just look up the cyber underground on YouTube all our shows will show up and please follow us we're always giving you current relevant information to protect you keeping you safe Aloha folks Ted Rawlsson here at the noon hour in our think tech studios downtown la la la with Josh Levy from UHA are all joining us again Josh a frequent flyer on the show and it in absentia our great friend Dwight Tecano from the administrative side of UH Dwight I hope you're watching this because we're setting you up for lots of future obligations here since you started this whole process anyway we were just talking before the break about the the incredible success of this idea of a drone boot camp and now if you want to push it forward it would be interesting to me if we could think of the additional elements of content to go in it we talked just about drone operations is all we talked about we didn't really have a component that talked about the imagery that could be collected or the other things that can be done with a drone from a law enforcement perspective environmental perspective so we could think of other flavors to add to this absolutely yeah I mean there are so many different you know modules or you know kind of spider webs that you can take this take this road down right so we started right at the center of that web you know basic functionality how can you get this thing up off the ground safely and legally and then from then on it just depends on what that person's motives are how do they want to use it they want to use it for cinematography for you know environmental mapping for structural inspections for you know anything under the sun really and so you know what needs to be done I think we talked about this before on the show is being able to set up these these modular classes at you know whether it's community colleges or high schools or both throughout the state to to care to each of those kind of desired fields and that actually extends to an example it was provided to us on the show by Micah Moutas who was at the drone wood camps matter of fact has had a lot of involvement over the last couple of years with a newy-newy inversion school up in the Polo Valley but the head of the valley and the idea he had up there was it that area in the being top of the valley is threatened by landslides and things associated with storms and accumulated material blocking the passage of water and a lot of that could be albizia you're just a kind of inundated with albizia trees up there so the idea was to Micah I hope you're watching was to use the kids in the a newy-newy area to image the area around them generate a landmass map and a species map of where all the albizia is and sort of forecast from a land elevation model or landform model where that albizia might go if it comes down exactly goes down how about the next one as the bank gets weakened we're all the albizia go where's the water going to get jammed up where is the dam going to be and what kind of flooding we're going to have what a great thing for kids to see where their own house their own school yeah just a structure miniature disaster management model yeah right locally right to your own your own backyard exactly so this so up up valley Polo has one perspective and one issue not a clue Lee more than likely has a different issue probably with traffic jams on the on the Farrington Highway so different locations will have a different place at a different utility they could come into the picture and in our spare time great projects to put together absolutely and that's why it's great to start getting in touch with guys like Micah and and Karno as well who can go and champion this in other locations throughout the state and throughout the island so illustrating how would you as a practitioner of the art how would you illustrate to a class the issue of photo mosaicing for example or the issue or the technology of forming a digital elevation model those aren't terms that resonate with most people right so well that's you that's that's an interesting question the answer actually can be told throughout an entire semester that's what one of the right one of the one of the professors in you can't use that excuse no well so was I'm gonna I'm gonna start talking a little bit about some one of the classes in the geography department UH where the the whole goal is to have these students understand at the mathematical level how those softwares and how the system you said the magic word math yeah okay and so it's I mean it's definitely more than what I can get into and honestly a little bit over my head in terms of the the magic that happens in that black box but what photogrammetry is essentially is understanding how different pictures taken from different locations relate to one another and from there you can build a three-dimensional perspective from various areas of a scene and so you know it takes a pretty significant amount of computing power and processing power to develop these models and you know going back to you know the big data issue of you know once you go and collect all this imagery what you know what can we do with it but yeah so going going back to understanding exactly the fundamentals of photogrammetry it goes back to to to math essentially you're understanding angles and various other you know overlapping photographs and all the different situations that so at the end of the day all this the imagery and the pixels this sort of thing they degrade or deduce or extrapolate down to a set of data in a point cloud somewhere exactly yeah and that then that point cloud has to be manipulated in such a way that the edges between adjacent photographs are are forced into compliance with each other based on shapes and colors perhaps yeah exactly so looking at looking at gradients between between edges and colors exactly and trying to find out how those images line rule and with one another and then looking at how the images differ based on the perspective of the camera at that location you could determine the shape of that object or the shape of that terrain I can think of a lot of succession about three or four picture sets show that individual pictures and then here's the first lash up of the at the interface and then here's the completed lash up and then here's the trigonometric trigonometric corrections required to make the three-dimensional point cloud come out in some way so I can see how that would progress I think kids even in a fourth grade would pick that up right away yeah I mean that the coolest part about it is actually being able to visualize this stuff I mean the when I first got hooked on on this is you have to go out and flying which is all was all fun but then going out and actually creating one of those three dimensional models and being able to kind of essentially fly through it that's what really gets kids excited and it's that is cool okay you can take your school that way you could take the environment around your school your soccer field whatever it might be exactly the traffic situation so we I think we have an obligation to illustrate that somehow to express that we've lost we have lots of obligations Ted yeah the longer the show goes we're gonna have the way it looks here but I do think that that's the essence of the of the user part of this and then there's a part that I get excited about and that's the insides in what's making the drone work we just fly them but there's more high tech going on inside that little $79 drone that we have in our cars yep and understanding how that was conceived how that was coded how that was verified how that's made reliable all these things to me are the application side that are really exciting and how you can improve it fine exactly how do you make it work for you yeah and now we have to get that brings up Domer at Asimov we have to get on the show and the upscore grant at some point in time and talk about that but if we could get kids interested in what's under the hood both on the analysis side and from what makes it work side I think we'd have a really informed workforce coming out of it's not just a workforce but a thinking force that is necessary to take advantage of all this in a practical way exactly I mean the only way that you're going to improve on something is if you understand that entity already innately right you have to understand it fully to say okay to make it do this I need to be changing making these changes or this thing could be done better if I do it this way and so taking this looping us back to Dwight Tocano's drone boot camp our next drone boot camp we need to have the people who contribute to it or that has come to it participate suggest items that would be better in the drones they have exactly and begin getting them thinking in that in that whole process getting the end user feedback yeah so anyway we've we had a great discussion here about the drone boot camp we got to do that a lot you got to stop doing something else in order to do that we get people to talk to about that but Dwight Tocano you're not here but thanks a lot for the idea and and Josh Levy thanks for coming on the show thank you Ted and now it's back to work time for both of us yep see you all next Thursday