Speakers

ABBE LYLE

Ms. Lyle has been a professional photographer for over 15 years. She is a private pilot and an advocate for the safe use of drones as a form of creative expression. She is an expert in teaching drone flight safety and protocol and teaches sessions annually at the prestigious Maine Media Workshop. She currently is the Creative Director for Visual Law Group and often will fly missions for the company on photogrammetry projects. Ms. Lyle also currently assists and frequently appears on air as part of the Drone Owners Network Live show. In addition to her photographic and drone skills, Ms. Lyle’s distinctive British accent can be heard on various audio blogs, podcasts and other voice-over projects.

Drone-Based Photogrammetry – Innovative Techniques & Approaches

ANDREW DENNISON

Andrew Dennison is the Director of Enterprise Services at DroneDeploy. In this role, he assists DroneDeploy clients in building drone programs and/or outsourcing their flight operations. Prior to DroneDeploy, Andrew was the founder of drone services company Uplift. Andrew has spent years flying drone use cases for the world’s largest companies in various industries: construction, engineering, real estate and insurance. He is knowledgeable with safe and compliant drone operations, understanding enterprise drone integration, and more. He graduated from University of Michigan and is a Michigan Football fan.

Growing Your Drone Service Business: a Market Segment Perspective

ANTHONY DEMOLINA

Anthony is the CEO of Tactical Drone Concepts (TDC) and is the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Subject Matter Expert / UAS Program Manager for the Los Angeles Police Department. He has examined the advantages and disadvantages of this technology as it pertains to the law enforcement and first responder communities. He was a technical advisor for the development of a UAS ordinance for the City of Los Angeles. He is the course designer and instructor for eight blocks of sUAS instruction for TDC that he has been teaching for over two years. He is certified as a Master Instructor through the California Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training.  Anthony DeMolina is court qualified as an Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Aviation expert. He holds the following Federal Aviation Administration certifications: certified flight instructor, commercial multi-engine airplane, commercial helicopter pilot, as well as, remote pilot.  His aviation background is augmented by military service.  He retired, after 30 years, as an Aviation Branch Colonel in the United States Army Reserve.

Drones in the Tactical Environment

ANTHONY VITTONE

Anthony Vittone, an accomplished lawyer, and business executive serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. He oversees DroneUp’s business in finance, investors, sales, marketing, legal, HR and contract fulfillment. Vittone has extensive experience in working with developing businesses in a variety of disciplines. Prior to joining DroneUp, he was Senior Vice President of Swimways Corp., the outdoor products division of SpinMaster Ltd., a publicly traded Canadian company. At Swimways, he most recently oversaw product development, product integrity, HR, finance, IT and the company’s operations in China. He holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Richmond and a master’s in business administration from the College of William and Mary.

Growing Your Drone Service Business: a Market Segment Perspective

ASSEL AYAPOVA

Assel is the Global Drone Program Manager at AES, a Fortune 5000 energy company. She is responsible for program governance and planning, as well technology research, utilization, and cross-functional activities to integrate and expand the use of drone technology across AES globally. Under her leadership the AES Drone Program has achieved incredible results, included saving more than 57,000 hours of hazardous work annually and training 170 internal drone pilots. Assel is an experienced panelist and speaker, having appeared at events including the Commercial UAV Expo, AUVSI Xponential, and WeDC Fest.

Scaling an Enterprise Drone Program

BRIAN ZVAIGZNE

Brian is the technical expert responsible for designing, building and maintaining the multirotor aircraft used by the Roswell Flight Test Crew to capture aerial imagery and demonstrate their potential to firefighters and other first responders, as well as the community at large. He has a lifetime of experience with radio-controlled vehicles, as well as computers and other electronic systems. Known to Roswell Flight Test Crew fans as “Techinstein,” Brian’s previous media experience includes eight years on broadcast radio in the Portland metropolitan area as the co-host of a computer help call-in show.

Brian is an instructor with the FlySafe aerial cinematography program and has spoken publicly about Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) technology at the National Drone User Group Network Conference in Dallas, the Cleveland National Air Show in Ohio, the Academy of Model Aeronautics Expo in Ontario, California and the Northwest Search and Rescue Conference in Clackamas County, Oregon, among other venues. Having studied electronics at Delta College in Michigan, he currently owns an information technology business based in Beaverton, Oregon.

Drones, Thermal Imaging and Emergency Response

CHARLES MALVEAUX

As a Ph.D. Engineer specializing in remote sensing and environmental control systems using IoT sensor technology and robotics Dr. Malveaux is working to make UAV remote sensing a viable tool for real time traffic management. To accomplish this goal Dr. Malveaux is researching the use of machine learning algorithms and integrated sensor networks on several DOTD projects. His data collection and systems engineering efforts in this area are leading towards automated traffic management using aerial robotic systems and cellular applications.

His teaching experience includes working as a research faculty member at Louisiana State University as well as working directely with students enrolled in LSU’s Engineering Robotics minor. In addition in his time at LSU Dr. Malveaux has given numerous educational presentations to area professionals as part of university extension and outreach programs.

Precision Agriculture Meets the Real-Time World, The Use of NDVI in Agriculture

CHRIS MCCALL

Chris McCall is the CEO at Fotokite, a Swiss-based company dedicated to delivering mission-critical situational awareness to firefighting and first responder teams. Chris has 12 years of experience in leading teams in unmanned aerial and ocean robotics in Switzerland and the US. Winner of 2018 GENIUS NY 1st Prize, 2017 euRobotics Tech Transfer, and 2015 Qualcomm European QPrize, Chis joined Fotokite in 2014 and works within the team of 30+ to deliver a new class of autonomous, persistent, vehicle-integrated UAS to Public Safety organizations. Prior to joining Fotokite, he worked as a Lead Development Engineer on autonomous vehicles and remote sensors at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He holds an MSc in Engineering Sciences and a BSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California San Diego.

Public Actively Tethered UAS – A New Open-Access Tool for First Responders

CHRISTOPHER N. GREY

Christopher Grey is a Senior Staff member in SGH’s Building Technology group in Boston. He is experienced in investigating, rehabilitating, and designing building enclosure systems on a wide range of projects, from historic buildings to contemporary high-rise structures. He specializes in the design, integration, construction administration, and in-situ testing of complex building enclosure systems, including waterproofing, air and water barriers, roofing, rain screen cladding, and glazing systems, with a focus on design efficiency, constructability, and performance. He works directly with architects, owners, contractors, and manufacturers in both the field and office through all project phases. He is also a contributing member of the American Architectural Manufacturer’s Association, serving on several industry standard task groups.

Drone Applications in the Building Industry: Using Thermal Imaging to Assess Building Performance

DERRICK WARD

Derrick Ward is the founder and CEO of Hot Shots Aerial Photography. Derrick also helped with the creation of the very first drone program for the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), one of the largest fire departments in the world.

Combining thirty years of work at the LAFD—including years of experience as a firefighter assigned to Fire station 80s at LAX International Airport— with over 2,000 hours logged as a commercial drone pilot, Derrick has a unique blend of emergency and professional UAV experience. The work he does with drones has been featured in the L.A. Times, Commercial UAV News, and UAV Coach, among others.

For four years, Derrick worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department on their elite brush crew, located at Camp 8 in Malibu. This crew flew up and down the coast of California in a Bell UH-1 “Huey” helicopter fighting wild-land brushfires. His team was extensively trained in wildfire submission tactics, and the work they performed required specialized wild-land firefighting skills.

Growing Your Drone Service Business: a Market Segment Perspective

DOUGLAS SPOTTED EAGLE

Douglas is one of the highest-rated speakers at InterDrone, anchoring many of its videography offerings. Douglas is the Managing Producer for Sundance Media Group, Inc. and VASST, and serves as a trainer and consultant for videographers, software manufacturers and broadcasters.

Douglas is an accomplished aerial photographer who thrives in the adrenaline-filled world of fast-action videography. His love of everything aerial has his focus on everything drone and UAV, from best practices in UAV cinematography to ensuring pilots understand the FAA laws.

Pre-Conference Workshop: Drone Videography

GODFREY NOLAN

Godfrey Nolan is founder and president of RIIS LLC a mobile development firm in the Detroit Metro area. He is also author of Agile Swift (Apress), Agile Android (Apress), Bulletproof Android (Pearson), Android Best Practices (Apress), Decompiling Java (Apress) and Decompiling Android (Apress).

Getting up to Speed Using the DJI Mobile SDK

JEROME BOUVARD

Jerome is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and the Head of the Education and Developer programs at Parrot, Europe’s largest drone manufacturer. He has been working at Parrot for 10 years and wrote some code on the original A.R. Drone! In 2016, he moved from Paris to San Francisco to launch “Parrot Education”, the goal of which was to introduce drone and coding at K-12 level. The program was a tremendous success, with more than 2,000 schools involved, and major partnerships with Apple, Google and Tynker, the leading coding platform for kids. The program was extended to higher education with a major partnership with the MIT and MathWorks-Simulink.

Today, Jerome is in charge of the Enterprise Partnerships, working with all the companies in the industry to leverage the use of the ANAFI platform in their business by integrating the SDK capabilities to their applications or services.

He is also a part107 certified pilot and a hobbyist photographer.

Creating A Drone Ecosystem Using Parrot ANAFI SDK

JESSE STEPLER

Jesse is the Chief Strategy Officer of Measure. He joined the company as its first employee in 2014 and has led corporate strategy, product development, operations, and business development as the company has grown to one of the leading drone service providers in the nation. His previous experience includes advisory work in policy, risk mitigation, and infrastructure development. He began his career at a defense and security intelligence company, where he worked extensively on unmanned systems technology. Jesse has frequently been featured as a speaker and panelist on emerging drone technology, at events including the Paris Air Show, AUVSI Xponential, Interdrone, the Commercial UAV Expo, and the Drone World Expo.

Scaling an Enterprise Drone Program

JOE EYERMAN

Joe Eyerman has more than 20 years of professional experience statistically modeling social behavior and managing large data collection and analysis projects. His substantive expertise is the study of decision processes related to political behavior, security, and technology adoption. His recent work has included assessments of the transition of new technologies into government and public applications. Dr. Eyerman also directs RTI’s efforts to integrate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into our research and technical assistance process. This includes developing methods for testing the efficacy of drones for medical, public safety, and research applications. He has coordinated teams from multiple US and international organizations, commercial partners, and government agencies to develop and test applications for public safety, disaster response, and public health. His efforts have focused on developing reliable and repeatable solutions that address the core technical assistance or research needs while conducting careful assessments of mission objectives, scientific questions, and data quality.

Clinical Research Methods for to Save Lives for Drone Applications: Its not about Usability its About Efficacy

JOHANNES BRAND

Johannes graduated as an electrical engineer with distinction from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. During his early career he carried out successful projects for companies in the automobile industry such as BMW and TESIS Dynaware GmbH. In 2010, Johannes started a PhD at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. During his doctoral research he developed intelligent systems for adaptive neurorehabilitation. Johannes continued his career by pursuing a research position in artificial neural networks at Disney Research, Zurich where he developed deep neural networks for audio generation. Johannes is currently a Senior Data Scientist at Auterion and is responsible for leading the Auterion flight analytics team.

Improving Reliability, Verifying Integrity and Certifying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Advanced Cloud and Deep Learning-Based Analytics of Flight Logs

JONAS VAUTHERIN

Jonas is a computer scientist from EPFL, Lausanne. He worked for Pix4D between 2013 and 2017, first doing R&D in Structure from Motion, then on the mission control app “Pix4Dcapture”, that he created. He joined Auterion in 2018, where he is currently contributing to the Dronecode SDK.

Getting Started with the Dronecode SDK

JULIAN OES

Julian has been part of the PX4 development team since its very beginning at ETH Zurich in 2012. He took part in the UAV Outback Challenge in Australia in 2014 and has worked in the drone industry for multiple companies including Amazon Prime Air, 3DR, and Yuneec. Starting as a flight controls engineer, he created the SDK for PX4 drones.

Getting Started with the Dronecode SDK

KATHLEEN “KAT” SWAIN

Kat is responsible for leading the UAS “Drone” membership and programs at Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Kat joined AOPA in March 2016. Before joining AOPA, Kat was Vice President for Measure UAS, a technology startup providing commercial drone service to several business verticals. Prior to that, Kat worked in innovation for USAA Insurance, developing and leading one of the first insurance drone operations, and held various insurance leadership positions during her fifteen-year tenure.

She graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Grand Canyon University. Kat is Six Sigma trained and completed her Green Belt. Kat is a member and UAS pilot for a humanitarian drone organization, who volunteer drone service for search and rescue operations after disasters. She is an experienced commercial pilot, remote pilot and holds CFI, MEI, AGI, and Remote Pilot certificates.

Growing Your Drone Service Business: a Market Segment Perspective

KEENAN NEWTON

Keenan is a Lieutenant and the UAS coordinator for the Lynwood Fire Department in Lynwood, IL. He brings over 15 years of experience in the fire service, including over 10 years of experience with radio-controlled aircraft and drones, and 15 years of public speaking experience. Keenan is passionate about the safe and effective use of sUAS in public safety. He has a YouTube Channel called Saving Lives with Drones, which provides proven practices and subject matter expertise on utilizing UAS in public safety. Keenan is a seasoned presenter. He has presented at local and national fire conferences as well as for individual agencies and as a former Microsoft employee, was a regular technology spokesperson at conferences and keynotes.

Keenan offers real world public safety UAS experience as he has provided UAS assistance to various public safety incidents to include barricaded subjects, search and rescue, wildland fires, structure fires and disaster recon to name a few.

Keenan holds a FAA Remote Pilot certificate, is an Instructor II on his department, and a member of the Illinois Incident Management Team.

Lessons from the Field: Learn What Has Worked Well and Not So Well with UAS on the Fire Ground

MARC JOHNSON

Mr. Johnson is a frequent presenter and instructor in the fields of 3D technology and photogrammetric mapping. He began testing Pix4D software and consulting with Pix4D in 2014 and he was the first person Pix4D invited to serve in their Ambassador program. Mr. Johnson was among the first to utilize drone-based photogrammetry in court and his 3D work product has been featured in both state and federal courtrooms throughout the country. He has presented at FBI and law enforcement sponsored events and has completed various contracts in diverse fields outside of forensics that have included mapping a portion of the California high speed rail corridor, conducting time-based progress maps for a solar farm installation and supervising marathon intersection traffic studies for an urban planning project that required maintaining drone coverage continuously for several hours by coordinating pilots handing off the mission coverage in a coordinated fashion.

Drone-Based Photogrammetry – Innovative Techniques & Approaches

MARK EDWARD DAVIS

Mark Davis, Ph.D. is Vice President in the Next Generation Systems (NGS) Group at Intel Corporation. Currently, he is responsible for NGS’s UTM-related initiatives (UAS Traffic Management), including standards, research, and prototyping.

A 35-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, Dr. Davis was a founder of VIA Telecom, acquired by Intel in 2015. There he served as Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, responsible for all aspects of the company’s research and development as well as its overall technology roadmap. VIA Telecom sold baseband, radio, and power chip sets and reference designs for cell phones, modules, and IOT devices. It was based in mainland China, USA, and Taiwan, and sold to leading cellular device makers worldwide.

Before that, Dr, Davis was at Linkabit, later acquired by Hughes Network Systems, where his work focused on embedded software for satellite communications and VSAT terminals.

Mark Davis earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He is also an active RC pilot and AMA member.

5G as a backbone for UTM: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities

MICHAEL SCHÄUBLE

Michael is a product manager at Auterion and supports hardware manufacturers bring products to market leveraging open source software. He has been contributing to the PX4 ecosystem since 2016 and has worked as flight control engineer on large scale VTOLs before joining Auterion. He holds a MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich.

Drone Hardware Reference Design

OFFICER MATTHEW SLAWSON

Matt’s law enforcement career began in 2008 as a deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In 2010 he was hired by the Torrance Police Department where his assignments have included Patrol, Field Training Officer, and Communications Division.  Due to Matt’s technical knowledge and expertise, he holds a lead role in a variety of technical projects at his department including the ALPR system, surveillance and trackers, radio communications, and the UAV program.

Through his work on the drone team, Matt has gained extensive knowledge and a broad understanding of FAA processes and paperwork related to UAS.  He continues to assist and train numerous police and fire agencies across the country as they develop their drone programs.  Matt has established a network of FAA contacts and regularly consults with major drone manufactures providing invaluable input.  He routintely speaks at UAS conferences across the country and provides input to various local, state, and federal government entities.  Matt’s knowledge and experience has led him to become an expert in the UAS field.

Starting Your Public Safety UAV Program; focus on Law Enforcement (Two Parts)

PATRICK SHERMAN

Patrick has been flying drones since 2010, amassing a depth of experience uncommon in such a young industry. He has conducted extensive flight operations alongside firefighters and other first responders and, beginning in 2012, he performed pioneering work using drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras through a partnership with FLIR.

He has also used drones to conduct other ground-breaking missions, including: habitat restoration for native fish and wind turbine inspections. Owing to his expertise in testing and demonstrating drone technology, he was invited to Shenzhen, China in 2016 to assess innovative new systems currently under development.

An internationally recognized expert in the drone community, Patrick is the author of more than 100 published articles that have appeared in magazines including Drone360, RotorDrone, Drones, Model Aviation and Drone in the UK. He is a founding member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics sUAS Task Force, the Oregon State Legislature’s Drone Working Group and the AUVSI Cascade Chapter Board of Directors.

A top-rated speaker and instructor, Patrick has taught classes and spoken at events across the United States and around the world, including: CES, InterDrone, AUVSI Xponential, the Drone World Expo, Drones Data X, the Drone User Group Network National Conference, the International Drone Expo, AMA Expo West, and the Cleveland National Air Show, as well as the Drones Oman conference in Muscat in 2017.

He was selected to host the online coverage of the first-ever US National Drone Racing Championship, organized by Drone Sports Association and organized and hosted a national contest to inspire students to study STEM subjects using drones.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) recognized Patrick for his leadership in the industry with an Xcellence Award, given in its inaugural year. The individual award, one of only two presented by the association, recognized him for airmanship and contributions to the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry.

Patrick is known to fans worldwide as “Lucidity,” the public face of the popular Roswell Flight Test Crew YouTube channel, which has more than 22,000 subscribers and 4.5 million video views. Sharing their adventures online since 2011, the crew promotes the safe, beneficial and non-intrusive use of drone technology. In recognition of their standing in the industry, the crew receives sponsorship from FLIR, the AMA and SOAR Oregon, among other supporters.

A master scuba instructor and licensed private pilot, he holds an undergraduate degree summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in sociology and English, as well as an MBA with honors from Willamette University. He also holds a Part 107 Remote Pilot In Command certificate and is a certified Level 1 Thermographer.

Drones, Thermal Imaging and Emergency Response

RANDALL WARNAS

Randall Warnas runs FLIR’s global sUAS business in the industrial and civic space. Over the past five years, Randall has worked with thousands of users of this technology while pioneering drone retail and establishing DJI Enterprise before joining FLIR. Randall has spoken at 25 different drone events over the past three years on a variety of topics. He has a quirky presentation style that focuses on engagement and education rather than simply moving through a pre-scripted presentation. His ultimate goal is to bring people within the industry together, and shed light on what drone technology is doing today, and can do with the right minds and policies to fuel it.

How Thermal Drones Work

REZA KARAMOOZ

Mr. Reza Karamooz is an Engineer, Innovator, Futurist, an Aviation, Aerospace, UAS (drones) Industry Expert, and a FAA Part 107 Certified Remote Pilot. Reza founded GRADD (Global Robot And Drone Deployment) in 2014 to address the need for high quality, very accurate, actionable, and easily consumable data results from aerial and ground images. He is the President of Nevada Business Aviation Association (NVBAA), Vice Chair of Aerospace States Association (ASA) Nevada Chapter, and the Honorary Commander of the 547th Intelligence Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base. Mr. Karamooz is the Founder & Post Chairman for the Aviation Post 888 bringing aviation to 13-20 year old young men and women in the Las Vegas Area Council of Boy Scouts. He is a strong advocate for STEM Education, and his organizations provide year-round internships programs, and support after-school STEM Clubs.

In 2017 GRADD created 3D Modeling curriculum for Intel Corporation’s Future Skills program. GRADD has created and customized its own software and apps for visualizing and conducting measurements in 2D and 3D models.

As a part of its ongoing community service, GRADD-NVBAA will provide 100 Part 107 training scholarships to disadvantages youth in 2019.

How to Deal with an Older Datum, Such as NAD27, to Create Survey-Grade Maps, Using Drone Imagery, and Survey Targets and Check Points

ROMEO DURSCHER

Romeo is the Director of Public Safety Integration at DJI, the world’s leading maker of unmanned aerial vehicles. The past three years, Romeo has been working on various first responder and humanitarian projects to gain insight into the needs and challenges of fire fighters, search and rescue personnel, law enforcement officers, and humanitarian organizations. Romeo has actively participated in training, as well as real-life missions, such as search and rescue, fire, and natural disasters, and has been providing training using drones during live fire exercises. Romeo has been leading the DJI partnership with EENA (the European Emergency Number Association) and selected pilot test sites in Europe, as well as public safety partnerships in the US, to test and validate DJI technologies. Romeo has lead various internal and third-party solution projects and was named one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Drone Industry by the Commercial UAV organization. Romeo is also known for his aerial photography work, which has been published in various magazines, books, featured in TV shows, and hung in galleries across the globe.

Starting Your Public Safety UAV Program; focus on Law Enforcement (Two Parts)

RON MUNITZ

Ron Munitz, Founder and CEO of The PSCG, is a parallel entrepreneur, specializing in Operating System internals and Embedded Software. Ron’s Aerospace related experience backdates to 2003, when he led avionic development efforts in the Israeli Space Program, and his company is a leading provider of Aerospace cyber-security solutions. His experience ranges from esoteric real-time operating systems, to anything Unix/Linux flavored, with renowned expertise on the Linux kernel and Android ecosystem, having trained thousands of engineers for The PSCG, NewCircle, ARM and the Linux Foundation*.

When not training and consulting with the PSCG, Ron oversees multiple ventures led by some of the most competent minds in the world, as the managing director of PSCG Holdings LTD.

Drone Hacking for the Newcoming Researcher: OS Attack Vectors

RORY HOUSTON

Rory is a 20+ year, 3500+ hour aviation veteran of both military and civilian heritage. Having qualified as an Australian F-18 fighter pilot he went on to operate the Heron UAS in the Afghanistan AO as part of Operation Slipper (RAAF). During his 13 years career with the RAAF he qualified as a Category B instructor teaching a wide spectrum of Ab-Initio (CT4) through to Lead In Fighter (Hawk Mk 127) topics on the ground and in the air. His flying career finished as an Air Transport Pilot flying Airbus A320’s in Australia. Now a co-founder of Skyy Network, he is building novel distributed computing architectures solving interoperability challenges within UTM systems & architectures.

Distributed Ledger (Blockchain) Technology’s role in UAS Traffic Management

RYAN BRACKEN

Ryan Bracken leads Business Development efforts for DroneSense, Inc., a software developer that partners with public safety agencies across the country to help scale their UAS programs with precision and accountability. Prior to joining DroneSense, Ryan spent nearly twelve years as a FBI Special Agent assigned to Counterterrorism, Cyber, and Aviation operations. Ryan has FAA Commercial/Instrument and Part 107 Remote Pilot certificates and maintains a variety of cyber security certifications. Ryan also worked as an Aerospace Engineer for the U.S. Air Force and holds BS and MS degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. When Ryan isn’t sharing his passion for drones with public safety organizations, you can find him riding his bicycle, smoking ribs, or flying a radio-control helicopter with his two boys.

Drones, Data, and Civil Liberties: Protecting Lives and Privacy

SAM PROFITT

Samuel is a paramedic/firefighter/lifeguard for the Town of Wrightsville Beach. He has been in public safety since 2000, working for multiple agencies in NC and VA. He received his iMPS from the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey School of Medicine, where he conducted extensive research in emerging technology in public safety and homeland security. He also obtained his MBA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Teaching Expertise:

– sUAS professor at the Cape Fear Community College.

– Quarterly NC Fire College: Introduction to sUAS for Public Safety.

– NC Department of Transportation, Division of Aviation: Thermal Basics for Public Safety

– NC Department of Transportation, Division of Aviation: sUAS Role in Coastal SAR

– FAA & NCDOT: sUAS in Coastline Water Rescues

The Utilization of sUAS in Coastal Water Rescues

SEAN GORDON

Sean Gordon manages imaging and graphics needs to support complex engineering projects, including condition assessments, structural investigation, and construction litigation. He introduced and manages the firm’s drone program and is a licensed drone pilot by the Federal Aviation Administration. He has piloted drone flights and processed the related images on a wide range of projects to conduct thermal imaging assessments, building inspections, structural investigations, surveying, and mapping.

Drone Applications in the Building Industry: Using Thermal Imaging to Assess Building Performance

SHAY ROEHM

Shay Roehm, Innovation Business Development Specialist at DroneBase, has over twenty years of experience in project development and management of complex products and workflows. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree at Auburn University, Shay completed her Juris Doctor degree at Cumberland School of Law. Shay’s previous work as Director of Operations for multiple entities provided the opportunity to explore innovation in many industries, including sensor technology, where she found her passion for UAS use case development. Over the past six years, Shay has focused much of her work on sensor integration and drone project development, including complex transportation asset inspections, urban traffic study, environmental investigation and AEC/survey development. In her current position at DroneBase, Shay serves in dual role, developing innovative drone business in government, AEC and infrastructure, and management of complex projects.

When Gigs Fly: Droning in the Post W-2 World

TOBIAS KRAFT

Tobias Kraft is the founder and CEO of SolSpec, an aerial analytics company delivering asset management tools for the oil and gas industry. With deep roots in natural resource management, Toby cut his teeth as a GIS technician for the National Parks Service in 2011 and hasn’t stopped pushing the boundaries of innovation in spatial decision support since. In 2015, Toby joined environmental consulting firm Duraroot and quickly discovered customers had an immense need for precise geospatial data and intelligence to help solve problems before they become problems. SolSpec emerged from this need, blending machine learning and best-in-class environmental consulting to facilitate actionable insights on large-scale land use projects. With expertise in UAS program development and proficiency in ESRI ArcMap, ArcGIS and open source technology, as well as expertise in regulatory compliance mapping for storm water permitting, spill hazard assessment, vegetative coverer and monitoring, Toby helps his clients with interests in oil and gas pipeline construction, mining and land reclamation to learn, develop and optimize the use of UAS and geospatial technology.

Advancing Pipeline Safety with Aerial Analytics and UAVs

TODD KNAPP

Todd Knapp is president at Hanging H Companies, a full-service pipeline contractor specializing in the construction of pipelines, distribution systems, stations, tank farms, and other associated infrastructure for energy, oil & natural gas companies across the United States.

Advancing Pipeline Safety with Aerial Analytics and UAVs

TOMER KASHI

Tomer Kashi began his career in Talpiot, the Israeli Air Force’s elite academic program, and later continued to the demanding cyber unit of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

In 2016 Tomer founded SkyWatch.AI, a risk engine and InsurTech platform that today provides on-demand and monthly drone insurance solutions to thousands of drone pilots across the United States. Tomer holds both a BSc. in Computer Science and Physics, an MBA from Tel Aviv University, and is a Part 107 FAA certified pilot.

Growing Your Drone Service Business: a Market Segment Perspective