I recently had the pleasure of connecting one of my former Purdue University students, Ethan Hoke, with my current students at Indiana State University. Ethan Hoke has been involved with GRYFN, a multimodal UAS company, since 2021 and started full time at the company after graduating. GRYFN creates complex sensor packages and UAV integrations to create platforms capable of multimodal data collection, primarily for research and agriculture. GRYFN also offers UAS data collection as a service, requiring their pilots to perform data collection, data processing, and data presentation for each operation. The wide range of expertise that GRYFN possesses put their name at the top of my list for visiting industry professionals.
GRYFN went above and beyond to engage and inform the students on not only the company, but the UAS industry in general. The simplest, and ultimately most effective, engagement tool was setting up GRYFN’s Freefly Alta X in the lab space. The FreeFly Alta X platform is significantly larger than most UAS platforms operating under part 107, and most likely the largest civilian UAS the students had seen.
The placement of the Alta X ensured that students would have to walk past the UAV before sitting down for the presentation. While waiting for the presentation to begin, I saw students looking at the UAV and talking about it to each other in genuinely excited tones.
Ethan's first presentation was to my UMS 382 Mechanics of Unmanned Systems course, which meets at 9:30 in the morning and has around 30 students. Anyone who's given early morning lectures knows the struggle of keeping student attention, and even more difficult is getting the students engaged enough to ask consistent questions. Ethan was able to not only capture their attention, but engage the students enough for a 45 minute question and answer session. During this presentation the following topics were covered: the origins of GRYFN, the contents of each sensor package, the purpose of each type of data, how the collected data is processed, and his experiences as a pilot for GRYFN.
After a tour of campus, and lunch, Ethan gave a presentation to the AUVSI club at ISU. While this group was much smaller than the morning class, eight students, this session lasted over twice as long. The presentation began by answering a list of questions that the AUVSI club members had assembled and sent to Ethan a few weeks in advance. These questions covered Ethan's start with GRYFN, the skillsets the students would most need upon graduating, and then more technical questions about multi-modal data collection and processing.
After about an hour of additional questions, based on the original question list, the students wanted to know more about the Alta X. Once everyone was gathered around the vehicle Ethan gave them a very thorough lesson on the aircraft and how he uses it in the field.
The AUVSI session ended after roughly two hours of constant questions, and the students left energized. The next morning I overheard students discussing the presentation, and how they could use the lab resources to bolster their skills and experiences. Watching one of my previous students come to a different University to share his success and experience with new students was one of the most meaningful things that I've had happen in my time teaching. The willingness of Ethan and GRYFN to devote their time and energy to this speaks volumes to the forward looking nature of the organization, and I hope to continue developing a relationship between ISU and GRYFN.
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