WITI introduces Drones as part of STEM program

June 2016 – At the Women In Technology International (WITI) conference held in San Jose, they added a new session to encourage young women and girls to look at realistic application of the STEM programs and get their hands on new technology. A session, sponsored by the Interdrone Conference, brought out middle school girls to get practical experience handling and programing drones for use.

The session started with several kits that allowed the girls to learn the parts of the drone, and assemble them. One of the key points was getting the kids to understand the practicalities of the drone’s ability to fly. How big and how many motors were used, and how much weight could be carried – including the operational battery were all topics covered.

For the programming task, the session assumed no prior programming experience and stepped the class through the high level programming language and custom libraries provided by the drone manufacturer. This allowed the girls to focus on what they wanted the drones to do, not the details of microprocessor and sensor code to get the information.

The point of the session was not to make drone pilots out of the students, instead it was to show that there are both practical and understandable aspects of women pursuing a STEM education. It was also designed to get them interested in a technology that is obtainable at the consumer level that has an application in the business environment as well.