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ITC starts new UAV centre How UAV technology further supports Geoscience

In the last two decades, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has surged. The ITC Faculty has been at the forefront of this change, being very active in the use of UAVs in remote sensing applications. Given the interest in UAV technology inside and outside the faculty, ITC has recently established a UAV centre.

The centre better structures and increases the earned knowledge in the different domains, through the promotion of new research developments and the extension of ITC’s capacity in education and consultancies. The interaction of researchers from different departments and with different research focuses and expertise boosts the novelty and the societal and scientific impact of the developed solutions. For instance, the UAV centre, acquires knowledge of electronics and robotics, which is also a big theme at the University of Twente. We can better adapt sensors and platforms to complex situations with this knowledge. In addition to professional knowledge and mapping situations using UAVs, the UAV centre also contributes to ITC's mission: capacity development, tackling global 'wicked problems' by effectively applying, sharing and facilitating knowledge and tools in the field of geo-information and earth observation.

Customisation through micro-teaching

The centre develops new educational material by combining the knowledge of different researchers. The centre offers this educational material in various ways. In addition to traditional education in the form of short customised courses, there is also online education for students studying remotely or hybrid. Whereas the more conventional 'presence education' mainly builds on previous courses, online education is structured in micro-courses. Educators can combine these into shorter or longer courses with varying degrees of complexity, tailored to each target group. Although the UAV centre is still in its infancy, several projects are already underway and more will soon follow.

More information 

More information about the UAV centre can be found on its website.

K.W. Wesselink - Schram MSc (Kees)
Science Communication Officer (available Mon-Fri)