Page 46 - Autumn 2024

Institution of Electronics News

DRONE TECHNOLOGY

IN ARLOESI DOLGELLAU

Arloesi Dolgellau, the community Maker Space and been continuing to embed electronics education
education hub based in Dolgellau in the Snowdonia in its engagement with the local community. With
National Park, is working with M-SParc—North volunteer support, two “Smart Tech” workshops
Wales’ Science Park— to develop a drone were held over the summer, with the start of the
foundation course. This course will equip young new academic year, the aim is to have a monthly
people with digital and engineering skills in relation workshop rolling out a syllabus designed by volunteer
to drone technology and be a feeder into wider STEM Chris Owens. This syllabus aims to encourage
related learning. learning and exploration around smart technology,
specifically sensors, microcomputers and controllers,
Arloesi Dolgellau is leading in this effort to establish
and new innovations in computing. Participants in
a drone foundation course as part of its education
these workshops are being offered the opportunity
offer to the local community. While the syllabus for
to join the Institution of Electronics as student
this course is still in development it will comprise of a
members. The modules will cover a range of target
number of strands:
audiences, and we hope to be able to offer some of
• a drone programming curriculum for primary the workshops within the local schools.
and secondary school students (using Python
and Tello drones)
• Drone coding camps and 3D printing workshops
to build custom drone parts
• A local drone innovation challenge to encourage
student-led experiments in delivery logistics,
mapping and monitoring.
The vision is to establish a community drone lab
within the Arloesi Dolgellau Maker Space and share
this experience across the wider Ffiws network.
The course is only part of Arloesi Dolgellau’s
aspiration to explore wider applications of drone
technology in a rural context. One area of interest
is the use of drones to improve productivity and
environmental data collection for local farming
and horticulture. This could mean using drones for
multispectral imaging of crop health in local farms
and in Arloesi Dolgellau’s own “Intelligent Garden,”
monitoring soil moisture and nutrient levels through
As well as creating the community drone lab we
drone-assisted sensor calibration and exploring
are to continue our partnerships with Smart Towns
real-time drone data streams for training datasets in
Cymru and Menter Môn. Get in touch if you would like
AI-assisted agriculture.
to know more about the project or get involved.
As this project develops, Arloesi Dolgellau has

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