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>> Narrator Emilie Howlett, University of Hawaii at Manoa student: This is a UAV, an
unmanned aerial vehicle, more commonly known as a drone. It is also an example of collaboration
by two University of Hawaii at Manoa students from two, completely different disciplines.
Chuck Devaney is a graduate student in geography focused on high resolution, aerial photography.
>> Chuck Devaney, Geography graduate student, UH Manoa: To look at vegetation conditions
in and around the island and also have a look at some of the archeological features.
>> Narrator: David Hummer is a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering. His focus, building
things.
>> David Hummer, UH Manoa Mechanical engineering PhD candidate: Being an engineer, if it’s
not broken, then it doesn’t have enough features.
>> Narrator: High-resolution aerial imagery is expensive, especially for a graduate student.
Before Devaney met Hummer, he had already taken to the skies in an attempt to make his
life’s work more economical.
>> Devaney: Well, first we thought we were going to launch a rocket and tape a phone
to it and that turned into the whole kite effort.
>> Narrator: But kites need wind, which isn’t always guaranteed. Eventually, a mutual colleague
introduced Hummer to Devaney and the geography drone project took off. And there is no telling
where it may land.
>> Devaney: The UAV has given us a lot more flexibility in terms of the types of environments
that we can fly in. The amount of area that we can cover, the stability and it is just
lots of fun.
>> Narrator: They spent about two thousand dollars on materials: a frame, electronics
and cameras. If they bought something similar.
>> Hummer: The closest one we found was 50 thousand dollars for the package, so if we
can fill that part of the market and make it cheaper then it seems like it would be
a pretty good idea.
>> Narrator: And it is a work in progress. Both continue to learn from their successes
and failures while making advancements in their individual fields.
>> Hummer: You know all the mapping and stitching and analyzing the photos, if I took years
of school I could do it but I would rather build the airplane and work on that and Chuck
focused on that part and together we could so something that neither of us could do without
each other.