Bucknell communications recently published an article on the work that Nick Urban and the other GIS student assistants did this summer for the Miller Run Restoration project. Excerpt below – click here to read the full article.
LEWISBURG, Pa. – As the son of an aircraft mechanic, Nick Urban learned a thing or two about planes.
The rising senior at Bucknell University started out putting together model airplanes when he was a child but later became more interested in the technology that makes them work.
This summer, Urban, a computer science major from New Jersey, has combined the two interests in a research project in which he is designing, building and flying a remote-controlled aerial drone. The so-called “Flying Bison,” outfitted with video and still cameras and GIS technology, is being used to capture high-resolution images of Miller Run Creek for an ongoing restoration of the waterway that runs through Lewisburg. The data also will be used to assess how well unmanned aerial vehicles monitor environmental change.
“Pretty much all the equipment you would find on a regular plane is squeezed onto this remote-control plane,” Urban said during a recent test flight at the Bucknell University Golf Course. “It has a manual takeoff and landing, but I flip a switch on the transmitter and it will fly itself and navigate on its own.”
